


Across the Stars

by JRadburn



Category: Star Wars, Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: F/M, Rey is Nobody (Star Wars), Reylo - Freeform, Star Wars - Freeform, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker Fix-It
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-09
Updated: 2021-03-16
Packaged: 2021-03-18 08:47:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 12
Words: 24,226
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29240820
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JRadburn/pseuds/JRadburn
Summary: The Skywalker Saga concludes with this emotional reimagining of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. "Across the Stars" recontextualizes one of the greatest modern day fables of our time, with brand new insights and events as we join Rey, Finn, and Poe in their quest to topple the despotic First Order and their conflicted Supreme Leader, Kylo Ren.
Relationships: Finn/Rose Tico, Rey/Ben Solo
Comments: 1
Kudos: 11





	1. Opening Crawl

[(opening crawl video link)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fTorVCZTJag&feature=youtu.be&ab_channel=JoshRadburn)

**STAR**  
**WARS**

_Episode IX_

_ACROSS THE STARS_

  
HOPE LIVES! Inspired by Luke Skywalker’s

dramatic sacrifice, the remnants of the

NEW REPUBLIC have rallied together for

one last stand against the tyrannical

FIRST ORDER.

But the Darkside is strong. Determined

to end the conflict, Supreme Leader

Kylo Ren investigates the ancient secrets

of the SITH. Rey, last hope of the JEDI, is

the only one who can stop him.

The fate of the galaxy sits on the blade's

edge, but as the final battle looms, our

heroes mourn. Princess Leia Organa has

become one with the Force....


	2. 1-3

# I

  
  


Alderaan Major was a rare construct. A giant chunk of fertile ore, and all that remained of the long obliterated Alderaan. Out in the endlessness of space, its only company was the split crust of the planet’s southern hemisphere, which took the shape of two cracked wings, held in place decoratively by city-sized gravity wells. A monument without rival.

As Alderaan Major’s central rock turned, a valley of flowers bred with love on its widest face, was struck by sharp light reflecting off a nearby moon. A mile long house of glass covered the green fissure and protected it.

A tunnel of exploding star light guided the broken celestial body on its way, shining with understated elegance in twinkling array. Their sweet song guided a pill-shaped shuttle to the surface.

Rey stood on the very outskirts of the valley, on a ridge of grey rock, wearing her usual Jedi gear, dyed ethereal white. She listened to the small birds and insects that lived under the dome, baffled by the technicalities of how a planet so dead could be terraformed into such a majestic space. Below her, in the heart of the valley, a great collection of people sat about the fields; old generals in full uniform, royalty from different worlds with all their different customs; senators of the New Republic in ornate dress; countless friends—and even the odd enemy or two.

Cupped by a collared hill, a stone tomb was erected, decorated with golden detail. Chief members of the now defunct Resistance—Poe, Finn, and Chewbacca sniffing uncontrollably amongst them—sat in council around the site on white chairs that reached towards the sky, backs like spires. They stood proud as high ranking officials of the reformed New Republic, medals emblazoned across their chests. Hollow, perhaps, as the battle was yet to be won.

The glass dome opened above and gave way to the one who had made all that possible: Leia.

Rey choked as the Princess’ sleek ship descended. Independent thrusters floated over its body magnetically, held it at a hover above the open grave. The masses stood. Out of the ship’s belly, a glass coffin descended. Leia’s body visible from outside. She was dressed as decadently as in life, in a sparkling black gown with subtle silver cuffs, trims, and linings. Three medallions were clasped in her hands. One cast the symbol of the great Rebellion, the other the Resistance. The third had belonged to her husband.

So peaceful. The coffin landed beside the grave, a light cloud of glowing bugs kicked up by the calm impact. They weren’t the only beings lifted into action.

Lando Calrissian approached a lectern that overlooked Leia’s grave, flanked by Commander Kaydel Ko Connix and General Larma D’Acy. They looked down at their Princess. Their leader. The crowd waited patiently, savouring the last few minutes with her, just momentarily forgetting that Leia and her deeds would live on eternally.

Far away, Rey shook as Lando’s voice echoed over the valley.

‘She was a warrior. Our constant, unfaltering light in the dark. Our Princess… Leia.’

Not a single face across the valley was unbroken.

Lando seemed to almost smile behind his grief as he continued. ‘Most of all, she was controversial.’ Chuckles replaced tears. ‘For she, as much as she would boast in her final days, was the daughter of Darth Vader and the wife of Han Solo, and neither one of them could get the final word over her. Me neither…

‘As we stand on the cusp of victory against the First Order, she will no doubt have the final word in this war she has fought since the day she was born.

‘It was a war none of us wanted, a war that’s ravaged our galaxy to the point of ruin, but despite that, love has prevailed. Her love has prevailed. It built all of this...’ He raised his hands and gestured to everyone in attendance. ‘And love _will_ have the final say. Our Princess left this world at peace, knowing exactly how it will end. No longer hopeful, but, simply, certain. Certain that a new, greater age lays before us. Goodbye, my darling, Leia. We will see your will be done.’

A chorus of candles lit the valley and merged with the speckled white of the flowery landscape. Connix left Lando’s shoulder and walked across the podium with a wreath of many light petals. She stood at Leia’s coffin. Placed a hand on the glass and mouthed _thank you_ , before dropping the wreath on the condensation left by her hand _._

Away on her lonely ridge, Rey watched the next speaker, General D’Acy, take to the lectern.

Rey rubbed away the damp on her cheeks, to appear as strong as she believed she should. But as D’Acy began to speak, the world went quiet. All the buzzing of the insects, the General’s voice, the sounds of every oddly shaped body that populated Alderaan Major, became muffled as though underwater, before completely fading to silence. Only a low hum lingered.

‘You shouldn’t be here,’ she told the man who had manifested to her left. She refused to look at him. Kept her sight trained ahead.

Kylo Ren moved in close beside her. ‘I’m surprised you let me. It’s been a long time.’

‘I’d rather it be longer.’

‘No you don’t.’

Rey ignored him. Ren stayed quiet as D’Acy spoke.

‘Can you see anything?’ Rey asked.

‘I can sense it, through you.’

‘Can you see us?’

‘As clear as in your mind. But…’

‘But what?’ She knew what.

‘You know what.’

Rey sniffed. ‘It still feels like she’s here.’

Both Rey and Kylo looked at each other, then quickly away and down, as if they had shared a forbidden glance.

‘She was strong in the force,’ Kylo said. ‘So why is she stuck here in this terrible reality?’

‘Sounds like you’re done fighting too.’

‘I will be, soon enough.’

Another hand laid a wreath upon his mother’s coffin. The pain he gulped back echoed across the Galaxy.

‘I think she’s waiting for someone,’ Rey told him.

‘Cute.’

They didn’t speak after that, just watched. They didn’t need to hear the words, for every inflection in the air was a poem of thanks that reverberated through their souls. Even Kylo Ren’s. _Especially_ Kylo Ren’s. Rey felt it. He was as brittle as she ever sensed, confused and haunted.

His hand was close to hers. Close enough to grasp. He needed someone in that moment. Perhaps the galaxy depended on him needing someone in that moment. Rey’s little finger twitched in the direction of his… Then she pulled back. Remembered the words that had accompanied that outstretched hand the last time, words that filled her with bitter disappointment and flooded her with conflict ever since.

‘I need you,’ said Ren.

‘What?’

‘They need you.’ He pointed at a young woman climbing the ridge. Rey followed his finger. Rose Tico was clambering up the rock having ruffled her black dress up and over her knees, calling out to Rey who couldn’t hear her.

Rey looked back over her shoulder at Kylo. Lurking somewhere behind him, she felt a presence too. Something dark. A presence far less conflicted than the sad boy to her left. It was hateful, so clear and vile it almost manifested, a black shape with a metal cleaver, the blade nearly the size of his body.

‘I think you’re needed to,’ she said.

Kylo followed her eye line. Then back to his mother. He didn’t want to leave. Another internal struggle raged beneath lips pursed in anger.

‘Shame,’ he said.

Kylo was gone. In his absence, the silence dissipated and Rey heard Rose’s call.

‘Rey… Rey!’

‘Sorry, I was just… having a moment.’

Rose looked at her. Hard.

 _Did she know?_ Rey wondered.

‘Are you sure you’re okay to do this?’ asked Rose.

‘I am.’ _She wasn’t._ ‘I am.’

After a solemn walk neither of them remembered, Rey and Rose stood in front of the open grave, hesitant to commit the final act of the funeral.

The masses were quiet now, their final goodbyes said. Rey raised an arm and lifted the coffin. The force itself seemed to govern and guide without need of further command. It lowered Leia into the grave. Pulled the earth over the glass as vines grew out of the grave walls and coddled the glass coffin dreamily. She would be one with her home planet now, forever.

But just like Kylo, Rey couldn’t shake the reality that Leia still wasn’t quite gone. The last she saw of her mentor was the hand that held Han’s medal, and that serene face, patiently waiting for someone to return to her.

  
  


# II

  
  


Kylo was back on his ship, in the very heart of his personal star destroyer, the Revenant. The Revenant cast a great black silhouette against the stars, it’s outer shell made of materials darker than any destroyer in the fleet, and it drifted alone, tilted upside down and against the grain of any neighbouring planets. A reflection of their Lord. More akin to a Dreadnaught—sans the unnecessary firepower—it was a blocky chunk of a ship. No, it was not the kind of ship you took arms against. Floating in the eternal blackness, it was the kind of ship you’d struggle to find in the first place.

Kylo’s quarters were built into the Revenant’s belly, close to the ship’s beating heart, imbuing it with a constant low rumble. It doubled as a royal summons chamber. Arching lines of light glowed modestly along the trim of the room’s amphitheatre style seating. Kylo faced his own throne, in the centre of the semi circle.

When he wasn’t dealing with the trivialities of leadership, this was the specific spot where he came to meditate, to seek out ripples of Darkside energy calling out to him across the Galaxy. But that wasn’t all. Much to his own misgivings, he also found his thoughts wandering to _her._ Finally successful in his procrastination, his mental journey to his mother’s funeral had not gone unnoticed.

Trudgen shuddered beside the Supreme Leader, ready to break out of his robes and armour. His foot had broken the red circle upon which Kylo stood.

‘Where were you?’ the Knight of Ren growled. Behind his mask, which was solid black and structured like a geometric demon, his voice was difficult to discern.

Kylo wasn’t in the mood. Not today. ‘Here.’

‘I sensed otherwise.’

Kylo sized up to Trudgen, getting so close that he rested his head against Trudgen’s mask. ‘I’ll do what I please, when I please to do it.’

Echoes in the force built within the chamber, a deep pulsing. A crack appeared in Trudgen’s mask, the early process of folding in on itself. Trudgen huffed against the strain of his slowly squishing his head. After a brief fight, he stepped backwards, laughing. To Trudgen, this was just two wolves play fighting.

Kylo released him.

The other six Knights, almost invisible for the lack of light in the miniature amphitheatre, stayed quiet. All but one. Vicrul descended the semicircle of rock hewn seats with arms folded behind his back. The shattered remnants of Kylo’s mask floated ahead of him.

‘Lord Ren. Our expedition to your grandfather’s fortress on Mustafar has yielded great fortune.’

Kylo sat down on his throne and waited. The throne was crafted to be intentionally uncomfortable; Kylo had not relaxed all year, and he had no intent of starting now.

Vicrul’s mask had a chequered mesh front and despite their expense, his robes were as dark as his brothers’—a gift from Snoke, no doubt. He always was the old Supreme Leader’s favourite. ‘Long have we petitioned our distaste for your unsheathed visage,’ Vicrul told him. ‘For a return of that ferocity that once flourished behind the Mask of Ren. That ferocity has somewhat dwindled as of late.’

‘Would you like me to show it to you?’

‘I would… I would like you to show _all_ of us.’ Vicrul snapped his fingers. Cardo and Ap’lek skulked forwards with an ape like being wrapped in chains. The ape carried a sack filled with intricate smithing tools.

‘A gift we found scrounging in the halls of Lord Vader’s castle; a welder of Sith armour. We have reason to believe he may have once worked for your grandfather.’

Cardo used the bulk of his flamethrower wrist gauntlet to strike the ape onto his knees. Cardo lifted the chin of his hinged, flat face plate and spat at the creature. ‘Work! You sorry, knuckle dragging thing!’

Ap’lek stood beside his hateful brother like a silent ghoul, his hood hanging all the way to the ground. His Mandalorian pike axe hovered close to the ape’s neck.

The shard-like remains of Kylo’s mask fell delicately in front of the blacksmith, as Cardo dropped a heavy, anvil-like platform beside him.

Furred hands shaking, the blacksmith inspected the pieces. The Knights of Ren, in synchronicity, beat their weapons against the stone that comprised the chamber. A ritual had begun. With every clang, the blacksmith worked faster, blistering his hands from flying sparks and misjudged hammer strikes.

  
  


# III

  
  


Rey floated in the forest, midday sun rays shooting through the canopies, causing the snow on Kijimi’s black rock to sparkle. Her legs were crossed, eyes shut. Broken components of her staff waltzed around her in the air, encasing her in an orb of swirling trinkets. She listened to the pieces, to the slightest _shings_ and _whistles_ they made as they moved through the icy world. It was like music, and calmed Rey as she snuggled into the fur trim of a jacket designed specifically for such a bitter environment.

Moving at their leisure, the broken parts of Rey’s trusted staff came together into two halves of a much smaller object: a lightsaber hilt. Tiny nuts and bolts slotted and screwed into place, it’s cylinders moving apart then coming together into a perfect shape. It was hers, and she felt a nervous joy at how close she was to finishing. All she needed was one a Kyber crystal.

Or, at least, half of one. One end of the Kyber was broken, stained with a smudge of heat from its explosive bisection a year prior.

Gliding across the space in front of her closed eyes, a gold heart pumped within it. Rey’s own fluttered with it as one. She drew a shaky breath. The crystal descended smoothly and sat between the two halves of her saber. Rey hesitated. This was it…

Or was it. Something was wrong. That nervousness she felt started to multiply, until it overtook any excitement, to the point her hands jumped out to help keep the split sections of the saber aloft.

Like pushing the equal ends of two magnets together, the halves wouldn’t meet. The crystal wouldn’t allow itself to be housed.

Rey focussed harder, using her brute strength with the force to close it. The metal writhed and creaked at the strain until… it was done.

‘Oh.’

Rey’s eyes popped open.

She snatched the saber before it had time to split apart, then flipped daintily out of the air. She landed softly on the rock, which was glazed with that glistening morning ice. Proud, she grinned from ear to ear. Hit the ignition switch. The saber crumbled.

As if none of its pieces had ever truly been held together, the sections dropped and clattered around her feet. She sighed. This wasn’t the first time this had happened. Flattening a scowl, she put her hands on hips, walking a quick irate circle before kneeling down to pick up the pieces.

‘I think I’m further away than ever.’

She tucked the pieces back into a satchel, then adjusted it tightly around to her back.

Holding it close, she lingered over the Kyber crystal a little longer. Her head dropped; how long was this going to go on?

As if he could sense her disappointment, BB8 rolled out of a nearby bushel of leaves, tips frosted.

‘I guess I’m good at fixing things,’ Rey told him. ‘Not so much building anything of my own.’

She deposited the crystal in her bag then reached for her belt.

The legendary Skywalker saber felt comparatively clumsy in her hands. She gave it a half hearted smile. ‘Me and you a little while longer, hey?’ She turned to BB-8, who whirred at her. ‘Thanks. Still no sign of the Falcon?’

BB-8 rolled to Rey’s feet and shook his domed head.

‘I know, I don’t like it either. Come on, how about we run the course again?’

The idea of being useful immediately perked BB8 up. Kicking up particles of snow and skidding on the ice, the spherical droid drifted around Rey before disappearing into the forest foliage. The Skywalker saber ignited. Rey, uplifted for the moment, charged after him.

Using several man made tracks, BB8 was able to move quickly, seeking out buttons built into the earth. When he ran over them, they pulsed white and unleashed a globed combat remote from discreetly hidden tunnels—the first one was painted just like BB8.

That was new. Rey laughed and went after it.

She and the globe hurdled through the forest together. The sun struck the rock and made the natural arena glisten.

It was difficult to see the remote, but Rey didn’t need to. As she went through athletic and gymnastic drills, it couldn’t land a single laser bolt upon her—though it more than tried. It spiralled around tree trunks, dipping in and out of sight; flew below her when she jumped; and made no qualms about cutting her off from certain directions with guiding fire. It was a beautiful dance, one as ethereal as their setting. But Rey needed more.

‘More BB8!’

Hidden somewhere in the forest, BB8 hit another button and several new remotes took off. A few with their own shields.

This time when Rey parried their fire, they were able to return it. The volleys became more intense, and as it did, Rey’s evasion simplified too. This was better. This was the challenge she craved. She reached a clearing and skidded to a halt, staying low. The remotes popped up around her—five or six of them. It didn’t matter. She let the force guide her, bobbing in place, running her own katas through her mind as her arms moved without needing to tell them where to go. The fire increased as the seconds drew on. Still, this too easy.

She snatched a remote out of its orbit with the force, pulled it towards herself, and pierced it with the saber—time to attack. The droids scattered as she leapt after them. Now Rey was the huntress.

Her grey jacket merged with the rock, allowing her to flow through the forest without being seen. She became a wild flash that dropped every droid in immediate succession. Job done, she stopped, a cloud of smoke buzzed out of the husk of a remote clove in two at her feet.

Her concentration sunk into the mist, and something snapped within. She needed more.

‘C’mon, you’re not trying hard enough,’ she called out.

BB8 hesitated.

‘Don’t worry, I’ll be fine.’

BB8 hit three heavy buttons in succession. The gears of several large doors, of metal crashing open against rock, echoed through the trees, causing the leaves to ruffle.

‘Here we go.’

Heavy laser fire tore apart the treeline to her right. She ducked, then spun upwards and over the stream of blazing red light, striking several bolts away as she created separation. After the brief parry, the droid on the end of the assault chopped its way through the ravaged branches. It was a repurposed Super Battle Droid.

With a Resistance symbol crudely branded over its upper shell, it unleashed another volley. Rey stepped to the side casually. With one sweep of her blade, she sent two bolts cruising back at the droid, which stumbled. Time to strike.

However, before she rush forwards, a reprogrammed Imperial Security Droid grabbed her from behind with a bear hug. It’s tiny, disc like eyes bore into her cheek.

‘Argh!’ Rey yelled, from both the pain and her foolishness. Held aloft by that seven foot powerhouse, she was a sitting duck.

The Super Battle Droid raised its arm, ready to fire. With no other option, Rey pushed outwards, creating an invisible ball around her body. The Security Droid’s long, dragging arms were forced apart to a great moan of its gears. Falling, she spun and cut the droid in two.

Using its torso as a shield and projectile all at once, she bowled the lifeless hunk of metal at the Super Battle Droid.

Before either rose from the dead with missing limbs—as she found droids were prone to do—she threw her saber across the forest and skewered both units through the middle, connecting them to a tree. Any accent glows quickly diminished. She called the saber back and latched it to her belt.

‘Whew. Close.’ She wiped her brow. ‘Good one,’ she called out to BB8, trying to spot him. Couldn’t.

‘BB8?’

The sound of a lightsaber ignited. It wasn’t hers. BB8 peaked from behind a rock, unsure if Rey was quite ready for this final simulation.

Rey looked ahead into space. She couldn’t sense the individual behind the blade, only the vibrations of movement around her. They were being cautious whoever they were. Taking their time.

Then, they came. Two of them at once. Knight Droids.

They were thin, their pistons plated with white armour, and they were helmeted with visors that caged tiny white glints. They did not wield traditional lightsabers, but rather synthetic, training versions. Their white blades manifested along a thin coil that extended out to the correct length.

The Knight droids criss-crossed towards Rey, behind her. She stared ahead until the last moment, then ducked their double slash, pulling herself backwards across the ground. One droid was quicker to pivot and used a propulsion blast from its ankle joints to close the space. It collided into Rey like a jet.

She locked blades with it, and despite grinding across the ground, halted its advance. The other droid leapt into the tree canopies, rotating its wrists like a helicopter, using the lightsaber to cut through the branches. It returned to ground level in a storm of cut foliage and joined the saber lock against Rey with its partner. The power of the two Knight Droids took Rey to a knee. With a growl, she raised herself back up, then let her arms go limp. The droids’ blades slid downwards as Rey weaselled her way between them, slicing at one of their arms as she went. The heavy chunk of the plate against black stone was met with a mechanical groan from the droid.

Rey caught her own victory snarl; she had no time to celebrate. The Knight Droid that still had both its arms used one of them to perform an upside down pirouette, giving itself enough reach to kick her midriff with its shin plates.

The tree Rey was sent cascading into covered her in snow at the trunk’s base. Rey’s snarl was back, this time with a hateful edge.

The two droids regrouped next to each other, the one with the single arm kicking aside it’s lost limb.

Rey threw the Skywalker saber sideways. It spun away into the forest. Then, she charged ahead without it, roaring. The Knight Droids moved to meet her.

Out in the forest, BB8 tried to catch the action, only for the sweeping arc of Rey’s blade to spin towards him. It missed—narrowly, BB8 having to rotate his head around its body to avoid being decapitated. The saber cut through a tree behind him. With nothing to do, BB8 whimpered before it’s uppermost branches consumed him.

Meanwhile, Rey was upon the droids. Her saber returned, boomeranging across the ground and slicing at the one-armed droid’s leg. It avoided amputation this time, but the blade was accurate enough to tear through its wires and joints. It toppled off its path and disappeared.

Rey caught the saber as it came around again.

The moment she gripped the hilt, she took off with it, spinning like a drill towards the final droid who hit nothing but air as she whizzed under its attack and thrust her blade through its chest armour.

It crumpled and she surfed atop the shell that was left until it crunched against a rock and deactivated. Before she could relax, the one armed droid limped out of the forest. Rey scowled at it; what was it going to take? It swung a guillotine sweep at her neck but she blocked, pushing it back with enough strength that the already fatally wounded droid couldn’t stand against it. It toppled backwards on its dodgy leg and crawled away from her, holding out its saber in weak defence.

A sudden flash of Rey’s past splashed across her vision, blinding her.

[ _H_ _er parent’s ship leaving her in crushing arm of Unk_ _a_ _r Plutt._ ]

A wave of anger washed over her. She thwacked the droid’s blade aside, and before it could bring it back, she cut it down at the wrist. Another vision.

[ _Kylo and the Knights of Ren cut through a band of round helmeted soldiers._ ]

She slashed again, any control she once had giving way to fear. The very ice began to melt around her. The droid, down to a stump, was struck again, only for a final image to take Rey by surprise…

[ _It was her, crowned in black, sat beside Kylo on a dark throne carved out of a dead tree…_ ]

She lost herself completely and shredded the Knight Droid, chopping it into haggard sheets of metal as she screamed.

‘Excuse me,’ came a posh, far away voice.

Rey whirled around, her saber stopping an inch short of the shiny golden hide of poor C-3PO.

‘Oh heavens!’ Threepio pipped. ‘She’s gone mad!’


	3. 4-5

# IV

Rey caught herself and pulled back. Shook the demons out of her head. Back to reality. Artoo wheeled onto the scene and chirped at Threepio; it might have been a laugh.

‘What do you mean, what did I do? I just came to give Master Rey the message.’

Artoo beeped back at him.

‘Well, it wouldn’t surprise me if she turned you into scrap too, old friend. Look, she’s gone after poor BB8 too.’

BB8 hobbled—as much as a ball can—out of the shrubbery, a thin branch stuck under his head kinking it sideways.

‘Oh no!’ Rey rushed to his side. Kneeling, she meticulously pulled away every part of the tree out of BB8’s gears. He was okay. He tested his rolling ability, and after a little stuttering, was back to normal. ‘Forgive me?’

He whirred happily as Rey adjusted his antenna back into place.

‘I don't know what happened…’ she said.

‘Training to be a Jedi can be difficult,’ said Threepio.

‘I just can’t see an end to all this that doesn’t result in more… well, this.’ She gestured at the carnage she had just caused. ‘Especially now that Leia’s gone. I feel so lost.’

‘As do we all.’

She smiled at him. ‘At least I’ve still got you old timers around if I ever need a dose of wisdom.’

‘I’ll be honest, I haven't much experience with such things as wisdom. Interpreting, certainly, but not so much the advice. Apparently.’ When she was finished with BB8, Rey moved on to the shredded Knight Droid and tutted away at the damage she’d caused. Threepio prattled on behind her. ‘Hearing the odds of survival seems to rub people the wrong way, I think. We have a habit of surviving most of the time anyway…’

‘I’m sure you've got some pearls hidden away in there somewhere. You’ve been in this since the beginning of all this after all.’

‘Why yes, I suppose I have. Though, in truth, I don’t remember much of it. The earliest memories in my data banks are of Captain Antilles. For some reason, my memory was wiped following the fall of the Republic.’

Before he grew discontent, Rey stood and gave Threepio a comforting nudge with her fist. Threepio jumped at the clang, unsure which protocol to take concerning the friendly jab. Rey laughed. ‘Well, either way, without you translating the ancient Jedi texts for me and Leia, I wouldn't have gotten far in my training at all. I don’t know if I say it enough, but thanks, Threepio.’

‘See Artoo, I told you she wasn’t upset with me.’

 _What an_ _odd couple,_ she thought. ‘And what about you?’ she asked Artoo. ‘Any more advice?’

Artoo hopped side-to-side and squeaked in a high pitch.

Rey didn’t quite catch what he said, as if she’d had sand in her ear. ‘Wait what?’

Threepio froze. Rey waited for him to translate what she thought she might have heard.

The four of them lingered there.

‘Please excuse me, Master Rey, but our little friend here has just mentioned—for the first time in almost forty years, I might add—that he has my memories stored away in _his_ data banks. Should we ever need them.’

Rey’s face expanded. ‘Really!?’

Threepio hunched over Artoo, staring a hole through him. Artoo whined back apologetically.

‘So you can give them to him now, yes?’ Rey asked. ‘This might actually be useful…’

Artoo reversed a bit and squeaked. Threepio didn’t like his answer.

‘What do you mean it was joke? What was a joke? That you have my memories or that we’re allowed to hear them?’

Artoo beeped.

‘Well why not?’

Without waiting to see Threepio’s response, Artoo started back towards base with BB8, humming nervously.

‘Because you promised Master Kenobi? Because I agreed? Listen here you little—’

Rey trudged after them. ‘Wait, Threepio.’

He did.

‘What was that message you had for me?’

‘Oh—Poe, Finn, and Chewbacca should return in a matter of hours.’ Artoo was getting away. ‘Hey! Don’t think I’m done with you!’ Threepio went after him. Perhaps faster than he’d ever moved.

Knowing that Finn, Poe, and Chewie were almost home gave Rey an uplifting jolt. She really needed them right now. She looked up at the sky, pre-empting their arrival.

  
  


# V

  
  


Kylo Ren’s screams echoed through the Revenant. Through the halls, on the upper decks, even on the bridge. Young officers and troopers went about their duties with chills running down their spines, jumping as the metal clashes and clangs rode on the back of thunder from Kylo’s quarters.

Finished with his training, a shredded training droid slipped off the end of his saber. When it slumped on the floor, the door to his miniature amphitheatre opened. Kylo turned, wearing his new mask, the same as before but veined with red adhesive. He took it off as the Knights trudged in and spread themselves out. Except Vicrul, who—again—approached Kylo, head and chest proud.

‘Finding another gear, I see,’ Vicrul said, as a small band of sweeping droids rushed into the arena and cleared away the mountainous remains of metal bodies at the commanding click of Ren’s fingers.

He didn’t look at Vicrul. Just his mask.

‘Any luck?’ Kylo asked him.

‘Alas, brother. No.’

Kylo scowled and fell onto his throne, exhausted but composed. He held his new mask aloft, coming eye to eye with his old self and all he had done. His disappointment was difficult to hide.

‘I’ve been thinking…’

‘Oh?’ came Vicrul.

‘I sent you across the Galaxy to retrieve knowledge that will end this war. You’ve been going back and forth for months and the most significant relic you’ve produced is this.’

‘I don’t think we should downpl—’

‘My control over the First Order hangs by a thread!’ The other Knights clamped up. ‘I don’t want Sith trinkets, I want their power. I need what they were working on.’

‘I understand, brother. But as our search continues, I’m certain the iconography of your old self will help quell any simmering discontent within your First Order. It may also block out any potential… distractions.’

Not good enough. ‘My Grandfather’s blacksmith… My old mask… What’s next? A wreath from my mother’s casket? And you want me to focus?’

‘Don’t think this a symbol of your past, but rather, a new beginning. You’ve grown strong, brother. Wear the scars of your journey proudly.’

Kylo watched the Knights—his so called brothers—then met the mask again, which glared back at him. There was something so much more pained and sorrowful to its design now. Kylo tilted it to the side, checking every detail. When he turned it just enough, a second face peered out from behind it. He and the Knights were not alone in his chambers, though only Kylo saw the uninvited guest.

Sitting with the other Knights was Luke Skywalker, just as he had appeared on Crait.

With the subtlest blue sheen to his visage, Skywalker rolled his eyes. Kylo gulped back a sudden pang of embarrassment.

He shook his head. Luke was gone. For now. Only the mask remained. Maybe it would help block _some_ distractions.

  
  



	4. 6-8

##  **VI**

Sparks flew out of the Knight Droid’s arm. It whined in pain.

‘Oh stop being so dramatic,’ said Rey, lifting her protective face plate. They were in a droid workshop, where the aftermath of her ferocious training routine was being attended to by her and other New Republic engineers. The workshop was a match for its natural surroundings, a window above open to a clear day sky.

The Knight Droid double checked it’s lack of an arm, then the hole in its chest. It tilted its head and said with a light display in its eye ports and a jingle that sounded a lot like, _Are you kidding me?_

‘Yeah, you’re right. Sorry.’

 _You‘re damn right,_ the droid sang back at her. Rey flipped her mask back down and resumed soldering, only for a disturbance to shake her heart. She jumped up.

Bursting out of hyperspace above the workshop—alarmingly, within the atmosphere—was the Millennium Falcon. On fire.

 _Oh uh,_ said the droid.

‘Is it okay if I leave you to it?’

The droid nodded and took the flame torch from her and addressed its wounds independently. Putting a grateful hand on its shoulder and gliding it across the droids shell as she left, Rey tore off towards the landing platforms across the Kijimi’s main city square.

Kijimi’s council district square was a flat, semicircular marketplace, now a New Republic base and wrought from the same black rock that comprised the gentle mountain slope upon which the city was built. The square sat in front of the local Council Chambers, commandeered by New Republic generals during the tail end of this war, as well as a consultant: Maz Kanata.

Maz watched Rey run past the converted temple from its balcony. The chambers were open to the world, comprised of simple, strong pillars and a stone roof. The chamber was large enough to complete the rest of the market place circle and split into several sections by New Republic tech and dividers. From here, the generals overlooked Kijimi’s city; three main streets bled their way down the frosty mountain side, all of which branched off into tightly packed estates of sprawling rock huts. The city was surrounded by the trees and icy paddocks Rey trained in. The back of the council chambers opened up into forest too. Like everything in Kijimi, the landing bays were one with the biome, interwoven betwixt the trees, with space for a hundred ships or more. From their raised vantage point, the Generals and Maz Kanata saw the Falcon make its landing and winced.

Rey ran ahead of them, along with a fire team.

After a controlled, slightly lopsided crash on the bay closest to the chambers, Poe came out waving his hands. The Falcon ablaze.

‘I’m sorry, I’m sorry!’ Marshall’s ran passed him and started blasting the Falcon with water. ‘There’s fire in the front, in the back, the sides, oh god it’s everywhere. I’m sorry.’ The generals were horrified. Far off, Maz smiled.

Finn and Chewie followed him down the Falcon’s ramp, covered in smudges. Their hair was singed, with Chewie having faced some of the most embarrassingly knotted and curled damage.

Rey was relieved to see them alive, and let out an exasperated laugh. She wanted to hug them all in turn, although in the moment, the want to scold Poe outweighed her happiness. Not only had they been gone far longer than expected, but just look at what they’d done to Han’s ship.

Finn was about to skip over and greet Rey but Chewie held him back—his extra height gave him a better vantage point. She was stomping over to Poe.

‘Good plan, man,’ Finn told Chewie. ‘Let's hang back a second.’

‘So,’ Rey said, faced with Poe. Her face was wide with an insincere smile.

Poe held his head as if about to be punched. ‘So.’

‘How was your flight? How was your _peaceful_ meeting with the Senators?’

‘Pretty good actually, can’t you tell?’

Her eyes widened. Her insincere smile turned into a sincere grump of a frown.

Poe tried shrugging it off. ‘Also, we got ambushed on the way home, and I had to give them the old one-two, you know.’

‘Which means what?’

‘I don’t think you’d like it if I told you.’

‘I already don’t like it.’

‘Well hey look, let’s just say I’m sorry and… Hey... Wait. Forget Han’s ship, what've you done to my droid!’ As if his injuries had tripled since he’d wheeled himself happily out of the forest, BB8 wobbled up beside Rey. Poe dropped down. ‘Buddy!’

‘Oh, come on, it wasn’t that bad,’ said Rey.

‘Well it looks bad to me. Look at his antenna!’

Rey pointed a finger at BB8. ‘Did you intentionally re-bend that?’

 _Who me?_ BB8 whirred.

Poe fussed over his droid companion as if BB8 were on the brink of certain death. ‘Ignore the mean lady.’

‘Maybe if you’d gotten back in time this wouldn’t have happened.’

‘Oh really?’ Poe popped up, aghast.

‘Really.’

‘Annoyed we haven’t been around as much, huh?’

‘I am.’

‘Well I could say the same to you.’

‘How!?’

‘Like, what are you doing here when should have been supporting us?’

‘You know exactly what I’ve been doing.’

‘Yeah, I know, I know: _Training.’_ He made air quotes with his hands.

‘Don’t you scrunch your fingers at me!’

‘Pfft.’ He weaved past her, towards the Council Chambers.

‘Pfft!?’ She followed him.

‘Look, I should have said it earlier, but you can’t just hang back and train all the time. I’ve told you before, you’ve got to start doing as I say. You’re the best fighter we have.’

‘It's really not that simple.’

‘Then help me understand. Otherwise I don’t know how this is all going to work…’

‘Make what work?’

‘Look, Luke and Leia more than got the ball rolling for us, but Chancellor Fortuun already distrusts the Jedi. He hates the whole force thing. And you.’

‘He hasn’t even met me.’

‘Doesn’t matter.’

‘Then maybe he needs some perspective.’

‘How can he when you don’t give it to him? When you’re hidden away here and not out there, fighting with us.’

Rey shook her head and looked up to the heavens. ‘You’ll never understand.’

‘Oh I understand alright. I know I’m not Leia but give me some credit…’ He seemed to force that out. Like the idea he couldn’t live up to Leia as a leader had been weighing on him since the funeral. Probably much earlier.

‘No you. . . Hey!’

Poe broke away from her.

‘You know what you are?’ she called.

‘I’ve got a feeling you’re going to tell me.’

‘You’re… difficult.’ Rey smiled. That was part of what she liked about him, as much as it caused them to bump heads. ‘You’re a difficult man.’

Poe held out his arms; _Who, me?_

Far off, Rose sat on top of the Falcon, watching Poe disappear into the chambers, leaving Rey on its doorstep.

‘They’re fighting again,’ she said.

Finn laughed. ‘Ah, they love it… Ow!’

A vent from deep inside the now subdued ship sprayed Finn with smoke.

‘I’m bad at this. Hey,’ he called down to Chewie. ‘What do I do!?’

Chewie growled and waved his arms.

‘What!? My Wookiee’s still a little weak.’

Rose hopped over the Falcon’s tip and pushed him aside, thrusted her screwdriver into the hole and twisted something. The Falcon's stomach settled. ‘Look at this thing; Poe’s still a little brash when he wants to be, huh?’

‘Yeah, but without that last move we wouldn’t have made it back. And after the meeting we just had, I can’t blame him for being a little reckless.’

‘That bad?’

‘Even Lando couldn’t get a word in. Now we’ve got the firepower, Fortuun’s determined to use it. We need to do something else, Rose. We’ve got… we need to…’

Rose saw a glimmer of light leave Finn’s eyes. ‘You mean _you_ need to do something.’

‘Yeah… I see Poe, who’s becoming this great leader.’

‘Sure.’

‘Then Rey, who’s this insanely powerful Jedi, and I feel… I feel like I’m being left behind. Like there’s something I’m called to do too but I can’t figure it out.’

‘Well, if I can be any help, I don’t think your future lies in fixing things.’ She pulled a strange contraption of crossed wires Finn had been messing with out of his hands and shook her head at him. ‘Whatever it is, you’ll figure it.’

‘You think?’

‘I _know_. Against all the odds, you’ve got a good heart, Finn. You just need to follow it.’

‘Or maybe you could tell me what to do?’

‘I’ve already given you enough answers.’ She snuggled into his arm and fiddled away with the wires. She chuckled. ‘Look at this hard-wiring, Finn. Bless you. It’s all over the place.’

To an engineer like Rose, the jab didn’t mean much. To Finn, something turned over in his head, and he felt a tiny step closer to his true destiny.

##  **VII**

Poe, Maz, Connix, and D’acy, stood around the beating heart of the council chamber: a circular stone table, cut into the shape of a bowl. Otherwise, the room was barren.

The table was ancient, a religious relic for the local populace, but as always with their kind, it was never above a practical purpose. The story Kijimi’s people were carved around the outside of the bowl, its insides filled with a dark blue lacquer or resin, to bring the surface flush with the table edge. Built into the resin were holo-projectors. A large, moving diagram flickered into life.

‘Status report,’ said Poe. They watched various swathes of red and blue move about the expansive, galaxy-wide map.

‘Same as always,’ said Connix. ‘Stalemate.’

‘Indeed,’ came D’acy. ‘The only real movement has been in these quadrants—’ the map zoomed in to reveal a montage of First Order ships attacking various planets and systems ‘—around Mustafar, Morraband, even Dathomir.’

‘Nothing good comes out of there,’ said Poe. ‘Are all these places significant?’

Everyone looked at Maz, whose expression went dark. ‘They all contain significant wells of Darkside energy.’

‘Fortuun’s not gonna like that.’

‘How did that go by the way?’ D’acy asked.

‘To be brief, it was decided—without much input from me—that the New Republic will ride on the First Order and wipe it out in one giant assault.’ The table murmured. ‘At least that’s the plan. The other senators were up for it too’

‘How exactly do they plan to do this?’ D’acy asked.

‘Well, they’ve done exactly what they said they’d do; amassed a single fleet so large I can’t even describe it. Bigger than anything the Republic, the First Order, or the Empire ever had. Every armada across the entire free half of the Galaxy has pulled together… Gotta give it to the Skywalkers, the spark’s definitely lit.’

‘Then what's with the glum faces?’ Connix asked, confused. ‘That’s great news!’

Poe and Maz looked at each other. ‘It is but… is it?’

‘If it’s enough to put down the First Order for good, I say let’s do it.’

‘And wipeout countless innocents in the crossfire?’ Maz posited. ‘The First Order control heavily populated core worlds, and we’ll be left completely open if this attack fails.’

‘I was afraid of that too,’ said Poe. ‘Chancellor Fortuun is adamant this one strike is the best chance we have. But this will be everything we have. There’ll be no back up. Nowhere to hide if it goes wrong. And I really don’t like the idea of Kylo Ren looking into these ancient Darkside territories. Whatever he’s looking for, it can’t be good.’

A sudden shock wave burst across the map.

‘Woah!’

Everyone stepped back, apart from Maz, who crawled onto the table.

The map buzzed and shifted, distorting as red lines rippled across it. It carried a strange call, electronic but with a voice. Maz adjusted her goggles.

Poe leant in after her. ‘Maz? What’s happening here?’

Maz shook her head, quivering, searching for the source of the output. She found it and crouched low in front of a desert planet. Mouth dropping, she tugged her goggles off her face.

‘Maz?’

##  **VIII**

‘Have you heard it?’

‘Not translated.’

‘This is ridiculous.’

‘Agreed. It’s been a month since we’ve even seen the Supreme Leader and now, all of sudden, he wants to talk?’

‘What could the message possibly be? I swear if this turns into another wild goose chase…’

Hux could have watched those three First Order generals complain about Kylo and his Knights all day long. The war room was perfect place to do it; Kylo Ren was never present anyway.

He was in complete agreement, and would love nothing more than to jump in with his own misgivings. But that did not end so well for him before. He stayed quiet, grinning as others spoke for him.

One elderly officer, however, a man who had fought in the earliest risings of the Empire, glowered at him across the long conference table. He had caught Hux’s smirk. One wrong move under Allegiant General Pryde’s eye and Hux would be finished. He flattened it.

‘How many more worlds are we going to lose to the ever healing Republic?’ one of the officers continued.

‘We still have a tight grip on the Galaxy where it counts,’ Pryde reminded them. ‘The economy depends on our trade routes, and with news of Princess Leia’s passing, the New Republic leadership is in disarray.’ The other generals shifted. ‘It's only a matter of time. All things considered, I think our Supreme Leader has been more than adequate. Isn’t that right, Armitage?’

General Hux wanted to puke. ‘He’s been… fine.’

‘Less than fine!’ one of the disgruntled officers blurted. The other two rallied behind him again.

‘Here here!’

‘We need a change!’

‘Someone with the stature of Vader, or even bloody Krennic. These barbaric Knights are too volatile.’

‘Exactly. This war should have ended months ago.’

‘And where are we instead? Obsessively seeking out old relics and religious fairytales for some final, intangible solution. We should be out there sweeping the galaxy!’

‘Here!’

The door to the war room slid open abruptly. Kylo and the Knights stormed inside.

Everyone stood, led by Pryde. The three raging generals were flustered but on their feet right behind him. Each Knight stood guard around the room like ornate, immovable statues, though a grubby entourage compared to Snoke’s Elite Praetorian Guards.

Kylo Ren rounded the head of the table and leant on it with great impatience, mask reforged. It’s red veins fluctuated as he breathed. A collective gulp resounded.

‘Sit.’ Kylo’s voice modulator echoed as the officers followed his command before he’d finished it.

One of the older generals, who had all of a sudden lost his fangs, said, ‘Sir, allow me to be the first to commend the resurfacing of your mask—’

Kylo raised a hand. The three mouthy generals were ripped out of their seats and plastered to the ceiling.

‘Intangible?’ Kylo asked them. They couldn’t reply, only gurgle. Kylo stared the rest of the table down. His hand lowered but the three generals remained fixed, out of sight. Out of mind. ‘We have received a communications signal from Emperor Palpatine.’

The faces of the officers not choking to death in the rafters spat their shock.

‘Impossible!’ said one.

‘It can’t be,’ came another.

‘You’re sure, Supreme leader?’ Pryde asked, outwardly aghast. But there was a lift to his voice. Something within him wanted this.

Hux closed his eyes. _I hate my life_ _._

‘It’s unmistakable,’ said Kylo. ‘We have our uncapped protocol droids translating coordinates bearing Palpatine’s signature as we speak.’

‘Is this message hostile?’

Kylo paused, considering this. ‘We don’t know.’

‘Emanating from a quadrant?’

‘A planet: Jakku.’

‘Jakku?’ came a female officer. ‘Starting line of your greatest failure, wasn’t it, Armitage?’

Hux went green with disgust. He couldn't hold his tongue any longer. ‘And homeland of the girl who defeated our Supreme Leader in combat. Birthplace of the last Jedi.’ Kylo raised a finger and the air rumbled. He held it an inch from Hux’s face, daring him to keep going. Hux sniffed back his gall. ‘Just checking.’

Reluctantly, Kylo spared him. ‘Me and the Knights will retrieve the Wayfinder. Once we have it, we will find the Emperor.’

He made to leave, but another officer—who had so far remained quiet—slammed his hand down on the table. ‘This is insane! We are on the eve of a final confrontation with the New Republic. General Leia Organa is dead. This is the perfect time to strike before they get the upper hand and you’re off treasure hunting? Again? Excuse my distaste, Supreme Leader but—’ he too was torn from his chair and added to the mounting collection of bodies in the rafters.

The war room grew quiet as Kylo shuddered.

‘My grandfather, Darth Vader; Emperor Palpatine, Darth Sidious; the Inquisitors; Snoke… The First Order _is_ the Darkside. But unlike you warmongering idiots of a bygone era of _their_ abject failure, I’m not going to humour this fight until the end of time. The Darkside is the only path to victory. I am going to Jakku, I am going to find where Palpatine is hiding, and I when I get his secrets, I will do what our forebears never could: destroy the New Republic and the Jedi for good.’

‘Sir!’ the room resounded, leaping to attention.

Kylo made for the door.

‘Supreme Leader, if I might…’

Kylo halted and looked back over his shoulder. It was Pryde. ‘When you find the Emperor, what will his position be here?’

‘A grave.’

‘Oh…’ Pryde deflated. ‘Very good.’

Kylo Ren left, followed by five of his Knights.

One remained: Ap’lek. His axe dragged along the floor, scarring the perfect polish. Hux’s ears twitched and he seethed at the high pitched sound.

Stoic, apathetic to all their concerns, Ap’lek looked up. With no effort or conviction to the swing, he used his long handled axe to reach into the ceiling and carve the first officer from it. The two halves of his cauterised body bounced off the table. Gagged by the force, the other officers stapled above squirmed as Ap’lek trudged towards his next victim.


	5. 9-10

##  **IX**

Finn was deeply, deeply concerned.

Rey and Poe stood with him. Chewbacca with a hand on his back. They were alone in the Council Chambers.

Finally, Finn mustered his first word. ‘We’re. . .’

‘Come on,’ said Poe, ‘sound it out.’

‘Jak…’ He couldn’t say it. He raised a finger, holding further encouragement at bay. ‘Jakku.’

‘There it is.’

‘We’re going back to Jakku?’

‘That’s right.’

He frowned at Poe, still unsure if he heard right. ‘Jakku?’

‘Come on, I didn’t think it was that bad.’

Finn’s eyes bulged. ‘I drank water out of a happabore trough.’

‘I don't know what to tell you, we’re going.’

‘And you’re okay with this?’ Finn asked Rey.

‘I… Yeah, sure, why not?’

Poe rolled his eyes. ‘Unless you’ve got some more training to do… Heurgh!’ Chewie punched Poe in the ribs. ‘Got it, my bad. But come on, if Emperor Palpatine really is back, we’ve got to go right away, or the First Order are going to beat us to him.’

Rey shrugged at Finn.

‘Damn it.’ Finn got to his feet.

‘Atta boy!’ Poe slapped his arm.

‘Don’t touch me.’

‘Caution, children.’ Maz Kanata hobbled onto the scene. ‘This is not just the First Order you’re up against now. There’s a reason the Republic fell in one night.’

Poe sighed. ‘Maz, don’t bring us down.’

Maz looked over the three young warriors. ‘All I’m saying is, I don’t think it's a coincidence that the end of your journey begins right where it started. The force has moved us into a crossroads; one way or the other, this will all end soon.’

‘We’re ready,’ said Rey.

Maz tilted her head. ‘No, you’re not. But maybe that’s important.’

‘If we’re going back to Jakku, a miracle will be important,’ Finn groaned.

‘The Falcon’s ready,’ Rose called from the edge of the chambers.

Poe clapped and went after her. ‘Well what do you know! The miracles have already started.’

##  **X**

The Knights of Ren littered the Revenant’s main hangar with their arsenal. An entire landing quadrant was dedicated to boxes full of thermal detonators, plasma charges, and weapons as old as time, as well as others newly smelt. They had collected wide and indiscriminately, their wares sprawled around the belly of their great dragon: a modified long shuttle, a class lost to time. The _Buzzsaw_ they’d dubbed it. The engine at its tail end was already kicking up smog, a bright orange furnace simmering within.

Cardo layered himself in armour modifications, the only constant what looked like a flat welder’s mask wrought of crude metal. All of his weapons, with their various poking out augmentations, sat upon him uncomfortably. He had a handheld canon strapped to one arm, flamethrower the other, and a series of grenades slung around his neck.

Ushar’s silhouette was equally bulky, his armaments intertwined with small, collected relics of the force—both light and dark in nature—most notably, a bone club with a concussive head, which he screwed into place, giving it an extra violent dimension. It was a weapon just as dangerous to the user as it was its foes, evidenced by his centrally scrunched and lopsided mask.

Trudgen sat on a stool and ran a rock over his wide vibro-cleaver. With every grind, sparks flew, carried by an angry grunt. Beside him, Ap’lek—having just finished with the stone—had nothing else to prepare. The long figure walked onto the Buzzsaw, silent and ready for war as he always was. He joined Kuruk in the ship’s cockpit, staring at him from his skeletal mask. Kuruk hid behind his side visors, adjusting the plasma bolts around his shoulder and chest collar. In order to ignore Ap’lek further, he adjusted the sight of his sniper rifle, which he locked down in the compartment beside him.

Vicrul watched over the Knights from an observation balcony, hands behind his back. Kylo joined him, suited and booted, mask and all. They watched a band of stormtroopers attach Kylo’s Tie Silencer to the top of the Buzzsaw. But Kylo’s mind was elsewhere, and it carried the scene across the stars.

The clunking, crashing, stacking, clanging sounds of the Knights’ preparing to leave echoed across the universe, right into Rey’s head. She tried to ignore it, but couldn’t shake Kylo’s connection. He wanted her to know the race was on.

She removed her thick coat and folded it into one of the cases. Or attempted to. It wouldn’t fit, and as she tried to stuff it in at different angles, the sounds of the Knights became a nagging distraction. She huffed. The longer it went on, the closer she came to exploding. She didn’t like being watched. Not by him, not now.

Before she cast the case down the mountain side, the coat slipped inside. Easy.

Kylo’s presence was gone.

Rey was alone, or so she thought. She nearly tripped over another supply case when she dropped the lid and found Maz staring at her behind it.

‘I’ve been watching you.’

Rey took a deep breath, hand to her sternum, shaking off the surprise. ‘Guess I’ve been a little hot-headed without Leia around.’

‘I’ve been watching you a little longer than that.’

Rey conceded. ‘I don’t know what to do, I don’t know where it’s coming from. It’s just there. With all I’ve been through, why am I still this way?’

‘Dear child, it’s one thing to accept what’s happened to us. It’s another to face it. You can’t hide here in the forest beating up droids all your life.’

Rey half smiled. ‘I’m scared, but I shouldn’t be.’

‘About going back to Jakku?’

‘About what I’ll find when we get there.’

‘More truth.’

Rey nodded.

‘Then, no matter how frightening, it’s probably best you go.’

For now, that was exactly what Rey needed.

A few minutes later, Rey, Finn, and Poe were in the Falcon’s cockpit.

Rey, at last, had a smile on her face. Being with these two idiots really was the best part of her day. To make things better, Chewie muscled his way into the co-pilot’s seat, pushing aside Finn. Rose, R2-D2, C-3PO, and BB8 were last on board, coming up the ramp carrying the last of the supplies. Rose shut the Falcon door, waving farewell to Maz and General D’acy.

With the team fully assembled, there was a certain excitement in the air as the Falcon took off, and they all stared ahead. Determined. Poe pulled the hyperspace lever and slingshotted them into a bright white realm.


	6. 11-13

##  **XI**

The Falcon coursed through hyperspace to a smooth rumble.

Poe and Finn sat alone in the cockpit, watching the whizzing light of hyperspace go by. They wore blankets and drank from steaming mugs. It was cosy, or should have been.

‘D’you think it’s true then?’ Finn asked.

Poe took a long sip of his drink. ‘Can’t say.’

Finn nodded. ‘Growing up, me and the other troopers in my unit used to tell each other horror stories about the old Emperor, about how crazy he was, how he would come and get us if we even considered defection. Left a real impact on a kid. But we all know what happened, right? He was on the Death Star when the Rebellion blew it up over thirty years ago. No one could’ve survived that.’

Poe shrugged. ‘All I know is the First Order is already too powerful—we can’t risk facing the Empire as well.’

‘You got that right.’ Finn took a slurp of his drink. ‘What exactly was the message anyway?’

Poe chuckled. ‘It was one of peace.’

‘Peace?’

‘He’s offering, apparently, the keys to the largest armada the galaxy’s ever seen. Big enough to end the war, some might say. If it really is him, of course.’

‘It’s obviously a trap.’

‘Obviously.’

‘So why aren’t we sending in the troops? Why just us?’

‘Because that monster built an Empire playing off both sides during the Clone Wars. Going in guns blazing is exactly what he’d want. We gotta keep this quiet until we know exactly what’s going on.’

‘And the Chancellor? That message wasn’t just for us, he’s bound to have heard it.’

‘Eh… I got Maz and some other guys to scram the signal after it pinged off our location. By the time Fortuun deciphers it, we’ll be back in Kijimi.’ Poe reached forwards and flicked a switch. ‘Best to keep him as far away from this as possible; he was there when it all went south, remember.’

‘Order 66.’

‘Even if the Jedi weren’t enemies of the Republic, it’s difficult to shake those prejudices, I guess. If he knew we were taking a Jedi with us to meet the ultimate Dark Lord of the Sith…’

Finn’s face widened. ‘I’m worried about her.’

##  **XII**

Rey sat on one of four bunk beds that lined the sleeping quarters’ curved wall. The old tattered cots had been renovated into a shiny and clean space for sleeping, rather than the extra storage room they’d transformed into under Han’s stewardship. Not that the compartments, flush to the walls and floors, weren’t still full of all his tat.

Artoo was propped in the corner of the room on standby, as he often was, having more than earned any rest that one required at the tail end of such a valiant existence.

Rey had been twiddling her spare Kyber crystal for the better part of the journey, occasionally making adjustments to the deconstructed segments of her old staff, laid out neatly on the bed atop its pouch. That familiar golden light winked at her through the translucent rock. It comforted her, but it wasn’t helping her build it.

She needed a distraction.

Rey slipped off the bed and slid one of the heavy floor grates aside, searching for something. Anything. Inside, she found a few small boxes of electronics—nightmarishly haggard machines beyond fixing. Exactly what she needed.

As she sifted through the metal and wires, a bright silver case—a full human being long—revealed itself. Jackpot. She shifted the other boxes aside and hoisted it out.

At first, Rey was hesitant; the silver box was like a thin coffin. Then, she read the tag hanging off its clip mechanism.

‘Capes?’

Inside the box, in pristine condition, were—as promised—a series of decadent capes, pressed and ready to wear. She held the first aloft. It was black, the inside a mustard yellow with a subtle swirling pattern sewn into it with intricate, opposite threading. Rey admired it, although she wasn’t sure what occasion such a garish thing would be appropriate for. Certainly, it wasn’t something she ever expected to see Han in.

She tried it on anyway. Frowned. _Nope,_ _nope. Definitely not._

She dove back inside the case.

And there it was: a bright white cape with a hood, made of a fabric akin to her own clothing. It could have passed for a Jedi’s robes, even if it was a bit shorter than convention dictated; the cape cuff floated around the top of her calf. She pulled the hood forwards.

Yes, this was the one.

She grinned ear to ear, but as she performed a pirouette in her new outfit, her foot nudged one of the cardboard boxes. A quiet rattle. Her brows crinkled.

A pair of golden dice linked by a chain flashed behind a rusty disk—a cylinder lid used in hyperdrive compressors. She brushed that aside and took the chain. Slunk back onto her bunk.

Rey gripped them close. They’d been Han’s.

She felt him through the force, through history. Then felt a lump in her throat.

Rey laid down, gripping onto the hope the dice represented; if Han was so certain Ben Solo was lost, he wouldn’t have kept the dice at all. It was a bittersweet moment, which dove quickly into a bitter one when she opened herself to the force to check on that lost boy. The sounds of the Falcon flattened. A mystical air filled the cabin.

‘You’re hurting,’ Kylo told her, unsurprised by the intrusion.

‘So are you.’

‘I am. But I know how to fix it, and I know how to fix you.’

Rey stood and jumped away. Kylo was sat on the bed, right where she had been. It hurt to look at him, so she started clearing away the boxes and capes. ‘You don’t know me.’

‘That’s not true.’ Kylo watched her scurry at his feet, his physical self hundreds of thousands of miles away in the cockpit of his Tie Silencer. Maskless. ‘I’m the only one who does. You’ve seen the throne, haven’t you?’

Rey didn’t answer, though the image of that hewn dead tree flashed through her mind and revealed the truth.

Kylo pressed. ‘There it is. The one where we’re side by side. We’re happy.’

‘Nothing but a nightmare.’

‘Not a nightmare, the future. It’s never too late, Rey. You can still leave your past behind, your pain. All of it. None of it matters if we have each other.’

‘No, not with you.’

Kylo bowed his head. He’d expected that.

From his new perspective, he noticed something on the cot: Han’s dice. ‘I offered you my hand before. I want you to know, my offer still stands.’

Rey stood tall and proud in the sleeping quarters, sniffing back tears before they started. She would not bend to him. ‘So does mine.’

‘See you soon.’

‘Bye,’ Rey snapped.

‘Hello?’ said Finn, stepping into the quarters. The Falcon’s rumble returned. Kylo was gone.

‘Oh, sorry.’ Rey was flustered. ‘I wasn’t talking to you.’

Finn frowned and looked around. ‘Then who were you talking to?’

‘Myself?’

‘Huh?’

Rey thought fast. ‘Look, a new cloak, a new me.’ She draped the white cloak and hood around herself. Gave him a twirl.

‘Yeah, that’s wonderful…’ Finn didn’t believe her, but there was no time to grill her now. ‘Anyway, we’re coming up to Jakku. Poe’s going to brief us.’

‘I’m ready.’ She dropped the cloak down on her bunk.

Finn nodded at her awkwardly, then left.

‘Wake up Artoo,’ he called back to her.

She would have, but something pulled her back to the bed. She shoved her cape aside. The dice were gone. A slight inconsistency in the blanket where they should have been.

  
  


Back in his Tie Silencer, Kylo held his father’s dice curiously. Inspected the numbered indents with his fingers. A young boy’s laugh, as well as Han Solo’s, passed through his head.

  
  


Bursting out of hyperspace, Poe, Rose, and Rey watched Jakku’s surface speeding towards them from the cockpit. Rey screwed her face.

‘Wait.’

‘What?’ said Poe.

‘This isn’t where the observatories were. Or the destroyers.’

‘I don’t know what to tell you, that’s where the signal’s coming from.’

‘What’s down there?’ Rose asked her. ‘It better not be more of those happabores; Finn’s going to go nuts if it is.’

‘No, just… just a few villages. Settlements.’ Rey could hardly breath as she spoke. Rose grabbed her hand.

The Falcon tilted and headed for the battle torn surface.

##  **XIII**

They landed in one of three launch bays belonging to a small outpost, manned by a curiously squat species and his family. They waited around the Falcon’s legs as Poe gathered the crew together onboard.

‘Okay, first thing’s first: Artoo, are you strong enough to crack into the old Empire mainframe?’

Happy beeps from Artoo.

‘And Threepio, it took us way too long to fully translate the message back on Kijimi while you two were off having your little argument. I’m presuming I won’t need to separate you?’

‘I don’t think I’d quantify our tiff as little, sir, but I, for one, will perform my duties with the utmost seriousness. As a veteran in human-cyborg rela—’

Poe stepped on. ‘Rose, BB-8, know what you’re doing?’

‘Staying behind,’ Rose huffed. BB8 wouldn’t even look at Poe.

‘And?’

‘And fixing the ship...’

‘…with grace and smiles on their faces. Rey, Chewie, and Finn, put on your best fighting faces.’

  
  


‘Brother,’ Kuruk called over the intercom.

‘What?’ Kylo replied. He was still fixed on his father’s dice in the Silencer cockpit.

‘We’re approaching Jakku. Exiting hyperspace shortly.’

The Silencer hissed and dropped Kylo through a circular port into the belly of the Buzzsaw.

The Knights were strapping themselves into their drop seats, which lined the hollow interior of the ship. Hyperspace was not a comfortable journey in their ancient, smoking vessel, but the gloom and discomfort imbued them with too much dark power to consider upgrading.

‘Ready?’ Kylo asked them, grabbing one of the swinging handles above. The ship rocketed out of hyperspace, shunting the entire ship forwards and back.

They clattered their weapons against the grated floor.

‘Know what you’re doing?’

Another clang.

‘Good.’

  
  


Rey looked out over the desert. It went on and on. An endless nothingness. But was it? A dot on the horizon called out to her. It couldn’t be seen, but it tugged at Rey. Sent a chill down her spine despite the morning heat. She bit her bottom lip, anxiety causing her to twitch. Poe saw it. He rolled his eyes and went over.

‘I can’t resist it,’ she told him.

Poe grimaced. ‘I know.’

She looked on. ‘I’m sorry.’

‘Don’t be.’ Poe slunk his arm around his neck. ‘Look, I’m sorry about before. As much as it drives me crazy, I’d been around Leia long enough—and you—to know if this is something you need to do, I’m not going to stop you.’

‘You’re sure?’

‘No. Not really. But come on? With the big guy, the little guy, and the droids? I think we’ll be fine.’ Rey hugged him. ‘Woah! Just don’t take too long, okay?’

Two garage hands pulled up in a wide-based hovercraft with a sail, as well as a separate speeder bike, reminiscent of the one Rey used to score the dunescapes with growing up. The look on Finn’s face as he left without her in the hovercraft—with Poe, Chewie, and the droids—revealed an aching heart. Leaving without her never felt right, and never would.

Rey watched them go.

Parting from her adopted family so soon was hard, but the history of her old one needed laying to rest. It wasn’t enough to know her parents did what they did, she needed to know why, especially if that _why_ was linked to her recent unease. She focussed.

Rose waited for her beside the bike with BB8.

‘No one should have to face this alone,’ Rose said. ‘We’re going to be here for you, no matter what that means.’

Rey smirked. ‘You two just want in on the action…’

Rose shrugged.

They left together on the speeder.

  
  


The miniature camp constructed by Kylo Ren and his Knights was bustling. It was erected on the opposite side of the desert, and slightly further away than any of them wanted. But the two white, double-decker, rhombus shaped trooper dropships that accompanied them required a certain flat terrain to land on. The Knight’s were dying to leave, kicking and growling at passing stormtroopers.

Kylo and Vicrul stood apart from them, looking out over the desert.

‘They’ve split up,’ said Vicrul. ‘We should too.’

‘Obviously.’


	7. 14-15

##  **XIV**

‘This is it?’ Finn asked.

The door into the bunker wasn’t First Order by design. There was something less glossy about it, its edges harder. Thicker. In its current state, it could easily be mistaken for the rock. Out in the middle of a deep canyon, dunes shifting through natural pillars and walls, the door was built into an orange stone face, which seemed to close its dry mouth around it. From the bed of this winding canyon, the sky above became a river of blue against the shores of reaching orange stone. It was suffocating.

Chewie joined Poe and Finn with mechanically augmented shovels, which had been attached to the carriage they’d abandoned before the valley grew too awkward to manoeuvrer through. They started to dig.

R2 sat on a rock with Threepio, his satellite radar spinning. Thankfully, there were no signs of approaching life—yet.

Rey stood at a village fence, watching its inhabitants hard at work, toiling just exactly as she had once done. But they didn’t have much in the way of Star Destroyers to scavenge on this half of the planet. Only one long-pilfered ship, sunken into the horizon, remained, it’s structure little more than a hollowed out rib cage.

No, these were the kinds of people forced to rip moisture out of the barren ground, to farm the thinnest, driest plants, to weave materials into clothing or cheap bracelets, or to hunt down the desert’s most gaunt creatures for food.

This was definitely it, this was her childhood home. The one she had forced herself to forget.

In the first instance, she scanned the village for her parents. Nothing. _Stupid, girl,_ she told herself. However, to a stomach churning pang of anxiety, the force honoured the request of her heart and showed her exactly what she had wanted, whether or not she was ready for that reality.

As expected, they were not of flesh, but as janky sheets of metal protruding from the earth, two of many in a makeshift graveyard. She saw the graveyard across the village, tombstones wrought from every odd piece of metal scavenged from that picked clean destroyer.

‘Do you need us?’ Rose asked. Rey squeezed her hand, then walked into the village without them. BB8 tilted questioningly. ‘Guess that means no.’

There was a quiet commotion as she walked along the main street of huts. All eyes on her. A few children were ushered inside by their parents, as several older members of the community watched Rey cautiously. One in particular—a woman with a bandaged and swollen leg, who could compete with the desert in years—took immediate offence to her presence. She tried to get up, toppling many hissing, multi-coloured lizards off her lap.

In the graveyard, judgemental eyes behind her, Rey dropped to her knees with a thud and bowed her head in front her parents’ graves. She rested her palm against her mother’s name—whatever it was. She felt out the crudely scarred indentation with her fingers, sensing what was left of the person long buried beneath her. All at once, a wave of terror burst out of the ground and wrapped around Rey’s heart. She jumped up and stumbled backwards, only to find she wasn’t in the graveyard anymore…

She was in a modest hut—the exact same kind dotted about the village—stood in front of a baby girl. It was night time. The baby gurgled at her sweetly, so why was Rey breathing so frantically?

The world vignetted around this child, a fizzing smoke of darkness at the edge of Rey’s vision. The room itself barren beyond a few primitive toy dolls and shakers. A low bed framed with piles of loose sheets and clothes sat alone in the corner, propped up by an array of tools and metal junk, sheets of steel and odd connectors and wires all ready to be polished and sold for portions. Rey knew how it all worked; it seemed her destiny would have been no different had she never been abandoned. One lamp lit the tiny hut, casting the baby’s face in half gold. The hut walls were scorched black with a lightning pattern.

The baby giggled and held out her arms to be picked up. Rey recoiled.

A man burst through the arched doorway, brushing aside its beaded curtain. He wore the same thick garb Rey used to wear during Jakku’s winter sandstorms. He paused, unable to move when he saw the child, as if the world might explode should he approach. Rey wanted to run into his arms but she was frozen too.

‘It happened again… ’ he said. He _knew._

Rey nodded, eyes filled with tears.

‘Let me see.’ He held out his hands and approached Rey, slowly, keeping one eye on the child who started crawling around in happy circles.

He took Rey’s hands and she seethed, as if both heat and fear exploded together in a chemical reaction of myth and science. Looking closely, Rey realised they were not her hands. They belonged to a different woman—her mother’s—scarred with that same lightning pattern that stained the hut walls.

The marks crawled up her forearms where the fiery pain was greater, the contusions a little brighter.

The man looked at her deeply, with eyes identical to Rey’s own.

‘I long for a day when we are free of this pain. What have we brought into this world?’

‘A child,’ said Rey, ‘that’s all. She’s just a child.’

He gripped her hands tighter. ‘What child could do this?’ Rey could only grimace at how much the folded and pressed skin burned.

‘How could you!?’ She pulled her hands free and slapped him.

The shock on his face didn’t last long. It turned into rage, disgust—at her, then the child, then himself. He left.

The scene shifted and fuzzed. Rey had teleported.

This time, she sat on the dusty floor outside the hut. It was the middle of the day. Hot. So very hot. Her little legs were chubby, as were her hands. Yes, Rey had shifted into another body—hers this time, only far smaller. A toddler, perhaps. Certainly, no older than three. Her emotions were far less nuanced in this body, so much more acute. She saw a man and her heart rate spiked, overcome with happiness. She held a bracelet she had constructed from weaved plant stems up to him as he—her father—walked straight past her into the hut without so much as a glance. Beyond the curtain entrance way, Rey spotted her mother, succumbed to exhaustion on the cot, a look of indifference over the child she had left on the doorstep.

This little girl didn’t know how to react. There was only confusion, and shame? It was all too much. She bowed darkly, scared and confused without the correct processes to balance her emotions.

‘What’s wrong, deary?’

An old woman passed by. Rey recognised her; she still lived in the village in the present day, the one with the gammy leg and all the lizards. A desert snake, dead and ready for cooking, was draped around her neck.

‘Aw, is that a present?’ the woman asked, seeing the bracelet, her voice so very warm and comforting.

Rey nodded.

‘Such a kind girl.’

Suddenly, as if her sorrow had been but a passing shadow, Rey wanted to give this woman everything. She raised the bracelet and it floated out of her hands, unassisted. But what was once a charmed expression on the old woman’s face turned to abject horror as the bracelet sailed towards her.

‘It’s true…’ the old woman whispered, and, just as she had arrived in a plume of dust, she scurried away.

Rey was alone again.

With no one to give it too, the bracelet fell out of the air. Boiling over, Rey, the toddler, shot it with a spark of gold lightning. A fizzling black string remained.

##  **XV**

Poe, Finn, and Chewie’s spades stabbed the landscape relentlessly.

‘You know who’d be really useful right about now?’ Finn said. ‘Someone who can move stuff with their mind powers.’

‘It’s okay,’ said Poe. ‘We’re there.’

They stood back.

‘It’s crazy,’ said Finn, ‘these people can strip entire Destroyers, but can’t get through this door?’

‘Looks like they gave up a long time ago,’ said Poe, eyeing up other scratches in the metal. ‘Artoo, you’re up.’

Artoo beeped his way over and plugged into the door’s override port, located in a weather worn panel hanging off its hinges. The droids' confidence made Finn scoff. ‘No hard feelings if you can’t do it, Artoo. Chewie’s always got his detonators—’

The door slid open. No problem.

‘Oh.’

Threepio, who was not impressed, joined Artoo, and the pair entered first. ‘Show off.’

The crew descended a set of steel stairs installed over a deep, underground canyon they couldn’t see the bottom of. Many of the steps were brittle and whined underfoot. Thankfully, the bridge was short. After that, they moved into a vast corridor system—a swirling maze of intestinal machinery.

The tech was old, a generation shy of the First Order’s, but untouched. This really was one of the final resting places of the Empire.

‘Artoo,’ Finn whispered, ‘every door we pass, I want you to set a new security lock. If we’re being followed by pawn troopers, it’ll take them a while to get through after us.’

‘Pawn troopers?’ Poe asked.

‘Yeah, you send in the pawns first, right? That’s what we called them anyway… called ourselves.’

‘And if those troopers aren’t pawns?’

The thought of facing the Knights of Ren passed through all their heads, and they trudged on in silence after that, slinking past endless corridors and rooms for what felt like hours, nothing but Poe’s beeping tracker to guide them.

The Buzzsaw and one of the stormtrooper dropships sat on top of a stone ridge on the planet surface.

Kuruk studied the ground outside the observatory entrance, flat palm buried in the sand. The bright sun almost caused his metal blinders to bend. He was sensing, searching. The force ebbed and flowed through the layers of stone and metal beneath. The other Knights lounged about the canyon like bored teenagers, sans Kylo and Vicrul.

‘These stormtroopers are useless,’ Trudgen growled, leaning against the door, still open after Artoo’s hack. ‘How much longer before they make contact?’

‘They’ve not made it far,’ Kuruk replied. ‘The Republic generals have sealed the way at every turn and…’

‘Laid any traps?’

Kuruk stood. ‘No, just locked doors, and they’ve disrupted all mapping tech. This is taking too long; Cardo, you should get in there. I’m going back to the ship.’

Cardo didn’t need asking twice. He cracked his neck, cocking his arm-mounted flamethrower. ‘Gladly. I long for the day we needn’t rely on these dribbling cretins and their protocol; Kylo’s far too fond of them.’

‘Ushar, go with him,’ Trudgen said. ‘Force your way through.’ He joined Kuruk in the walk back towards the ships.

Ushar flicked a switch on his bone club, which simultaneously sent it and his grenades into a high-pitched charge. He moved beside Cardo.

‘You know,’ Cardo said, ‘I do believe these Stormtroopers are only going to get in the way.’

Ushar chuckled. ‘Collateral damage?’

‘Collateral damage.’

They entered the underground abyss, leaving the lanky Ap’lek alone on the surface. A silent, still bastion of darkness. Waiting.


	8. 16-18

##  **XVI**

A six year old Rey dawdled in the Neema outpost archway, kicking stones from post to post. This vision was much clearer. Her parents were busy, far away in the central hub speaking quickly, determinedly, with a fat Crolute: Unkar Plutt. Rey already didn’t like him.

Neema Outpost was a boring place. The faces of all the locals, carrying junk and begrudged expressions, disturbed her. What a horrible place to live and work. Although, not everyone lived there. At least the shipyard was interesting. It was filled with so many idiosyncratic vehicles, either being parked up, bargained over, or modified.

One ship of sleek, Naboo design landed in the far corner. It’s people seemed important and shiny, and drew a crowd of mechanics. When its owners left the silver ship, Rey was captivated by their dress, which was in stark opposition to the diluted browns and oranges of the desert planet and its people. She wanted to linger over these mystical people forever. Just watching them felt like an honour. All the other species toiling about the outpost’s cleaning stations thought the same thing. But, as it always did, reality was never far away, and the harsh world of Jakku redrew her attention.

Two aliens were arguing over a piece of scrap at one of those cleaning stations, a tug of war in full swing. It wasn’t a fair fight.

One creature was very small, a starving female Dug whose best days were behind her; the other, a bulky Abednedu in the prime of his life. The Abednedu laughed with his friends as the Dug pulled feebly, tripping over herself, trying to regain the single small piece of scrap she’d managed to scavenge that day. Rey was overcome by the injustice. Her child’s eyes narrowed, a buzz tickled her hands. Stomping over, tiny rocks on the ground slid away from her, leaving trails in the dust.

‘Rey!’

It was her father. The call snapped her out of her angry trance. When she looked back at the Dug, the Abednedu had finished toying with her. Let her keep the little piece of scrap. A joke to him, a matter of life and death to her. Still furious, Rey took another step towards them.

‘Rey!’

The Abednedu would have to wait.

When she got to her parents, Rey’s father was already trudging back to their ship. A ship the adult version of herself had seen in her dreams… Her nightmares. His hair and dress had grown more unkempt since the other visions. He was a shell of a person, wobbling in the light breeze without any weight to his core. Without looking back at her, he slipped inside the ship. Gone.

‘This is Unkar,’ her mother told her.

The Crolute tilted his head atop the folds of his chubby neck flesh, inspecting Rey who scowled back at him and turned into her mother’s dress for protection. Unkar slapped a wad of cash in Rey’s mother’s hands. The weight of it dragged her body down.

‘He’s going to look after you for a little while,’ she told Rey, unable to look away from the money. ‘Only a little while.’

‘Come on!’ her father called across the outpost, out of their ship’s window.

Rey’s mouth dropped open and her face trembled. What was happening?

Her mother tugged her dress out of Rey’s hands and made towards the ship. Rey went after her, struggling to keep up, growing panicked. ‘Mama, where are you going?’

‘Just away, sweetheart.’

‘No, mama. No, please.’

Rey’s mother ignored her until Rey screamed, ‘No!’

Her mother huffed, turned, and dropped in front of her so they were eye to eye. ‘Stop, Rey! It’s okay!’ When she saw the fear in her daughter’s eyes, she flattened her tone. A little. ‘Don’t be afraid, sweetheart. It’ll all be okay.’

Unkar Plutt trudged after them. The child he had paid for was not going to get away so quickly.

‘Please,’ said Rey. She was blubbering. ‘I’m sorry.’

‘Be good, darling.’ Rey’s Mother was up again. Didn’t look back this time.

‘I’m sorry! I’ll be good!’

‘Be good, and we’ll be back, I promise. Just be good.’

‘I’ll be good! I’ll be good, mama!’

Unkar’s giant, chubbed hand grabbed Rey’s arm and held her back.

‘Mama come back!’

The rest of the vision was a blur. Rey didn’t know what she was shouting, could only visualise her parent’s ship cutting a white arch over the blue sky as her mouth pleaded as widely as it was able. Unkar was growling something in her ear, but she couldn’t hear it. Numb to the world. As her family’s ship was absorbed by the sun and disappeared for good, Rey fell to her knees, a six year old broken and muttering, desperate.

‘Come back! I’ll be good... I’ll be good…’

‘Rey…’

‘I’ll be good…’

‘Rey?’

‘I’ll be good!’

Rey grabbed the lightsaber from her belt, ignited it. Swung around at those behind her. A rumbling wave of dust washed over them. Rose and a crowd of villagers stumbled back. Most ran.

Rey was back in the village. The tip of her blue blade an inch from Rose’s face. Retracting the saber, Rey broke and dropped again. BB8 threw himself underneath, catching her dead weight. Cuddled her the only way he knew how.

Rose fell too and held her tight.

‘They hated me,’ Rey whimpered. ‘They were so scared.’

‘And that they should be!’ an old voice croaked. It no longer carried that kind tone as it had in the visions. The woman with the broken leg was dragging herself away along the ground, crutch broken after the sudden stampede of villagers.

Rose scowled at her.

‘It’s true!’ the woman continued, unable to stop herself. ‘Good people they were. Gone! All because of her.’

Rey jumped up. BB8 and Rose fell away from her.

‘Rey, no!’

Nothing was going to stop her. The old woman contorted herself to try and escape. ‘No, please! Not me too!’

Rey caught up with her easily and the old woman gave up, panting. Rey squatted down. Hand hovered over the old woman’s injured leg.

‘Please, no!’

The force rumbled, then came a serene singing sound.

  
  


##  **XVII**

  
  


Back at the First Order camp, Kylo and Vicrul snapped to attention, sensing a great power emanating across the desert.

‘There.’

\---

‘Urgh!’ The old woman was aghast, holding her breath as if her leg had been dipped in a pool of ice.

Rey shook, turning red, frowning, but not giving up. She sucked air through her teeth as the old woman’s bandages fell off her leg. The swelling was undone, the once splintered bones now whole.

A streak of blood, bruises, and deformation leaked down Rey’s own leg in return. Stained her trousers. But it was done. Rey limped away from the old woman without a word, past Rose and BB8 too. Out of the village.

\---

‘Curious,’ Vicrul said. ‘Monstrous, even.’

‘At last. The power I seek.’ Kylo was locked on the horizon. ‘You go with them—’ He nodded at the stormtroopers stationed around the dropship ‘—I’ll handle the girl.’

He stomped over to his Tie silencer. The troopers attending it jumped away.

‘As you wish…’ said Vicrul.

\---

Rose chased after Rey. ‘What was that? Are you going to be okay?’

‘I’ll be fine.’

The blood running down Rey’s leg froze in time, then reversed back up her calf. Gradually, her limp dissolved. She stomped towards the midday sun and desert dunes.

##  **XVIII**

Artoo beeped along merrily.

‘I bet you’re loving this,’ Threepio told him.

Artoo whistled his confusion.

‘I’m sure you know exactly what I mean, oh great and wise sage. The keeper of all knowledge.’

‘Would you two keep it down up there,’ Poe whisper-snapped.

R2 whizzed and popped back at Threepio.

‘Oh really?’ Threepio stopped walking. Artoo spun to face him. ‘Well, when you’re done remembering your way around this dreadful place, maybe you’ll get the chance to fill me in on my past life too.’

Poe jumped between them. ‘That’s it.’

‘What’s _it,_ sir?’

‘Tell him you love him.’

‘I beg your pardon?’

‘You heard me. He’s your buddy and you love him, now tell him; I can't stand this fighting.’

Chewie growled from the rear of the group. The motion tracker was whirring.

‘Guys, we’ve got to hurry,’ Finn said, moving past Chewie to check back down the hall.

‘I quite agree,’ said Threepio.

Finn stopped at the end of the corridor. Nothing had caught up to them, yet, but his hackles were raised. Doors hissed open on the upper levels and echoed down through the facility. ‘The troopers are already inside.’

Poe looked at Threepio expectantly. ‘You hear that? D’you want to die on bad terms like this?’

Threepio looked at Poe.

‘Don’t look at me,’ said Poe. ‘Look at him.’

Threepio did as he was told. Then looked back at Poe.

‘I said look at him.’

‘He’s already gone, sir.’

‘Wha… ?’

Artoo had turned a dark corner further along the hallway.

Finn shoved past them, moving into a jog. ‘He’s got the right idea.’

Poe pointed a finger in Threepio’s face. ‘This isn’t over.’

When they caught up with Artoo, he was busy working at the console beside a circular door.

‘Woah,’ Poe and Finn said together.

The door sat at the head of a control room, atop a short set of stairs. Something dark latched onto the group’s hearts. They all shivered, even Threepio.

The door was crafted from thin sheets of grey rock, not local to Jakku, which intersected over each other. It was an archaic spiral structure that looked like a setting sun, juxtaposing the technologically complex frame and lock mechanism around it.

‘This definitely looks like The Emperor’s front door,’ Poe said. ‘Sure you can get in there, Artoo?’

Artoo didn’t respond.

‘Don’t bug him while he’s concentrating,’ said Finn.

‘Why're you so jumpy?’

‘I’ve got a feeling you were right before. Those aren’t regular troopers up there.’

The clattering about on the upper levels grew louder.

\---

Rose, Rey, and BB8 sat on a sand dune.

‘I was a monster,’ said Rey.

Rose tutted. ‘That’s crap, girl, and you know it.’

‘Is it? The Jedi are doomed if I’m supposed to be the one to bring them back. I shouldn’t feel like this, not when I’ve got you guys.’

‘Hey, you’re allowed to hurt. Just because you found a new family, doesn’t mean you can’t mourn the ones you lost.’ Rose clutched her half medallion, and they sat stilly for a while. ‘That thing you did back there: you healed her.’

‘I had to.’

‘Had to? Yeah right.’

Rey hand waved her away.

‘Careful with that.’ Dejected, Rose shimmied down the dune. Had Rey offended her? Maybe, but that’s not why Rose tilted her head at the horizon. ‘D’you hear that?’

Rey jumped up. It was a tie fighter.


	9. 19-20

##  **XIX**

Chewie sat on a box at the corridor junction, unflinching in his watch.

‘He’s a bit skittish, no?’ Poe said to Finn. They were huddled near Artoo.

‘He’s on the same planet as Kylo Ren; after what happened to Han, can you blame him?’

‘And these Knights don’t sound any better.’

‘From what I’ve heard, they’re worse.’ A giant thud thundered above. It was far away, but strong enough to knock a cloud of dust off the ceiling girders. Finn hopped over to Artoo and Threepio. ‘Any luck?’

‘I’m afraid he won’t talk to me,’ said Threepio.

‘Told you to be nicer to him,’ Poe called. 

‘Sir, I really don’t think—’

A sudden red spark and all too familiar techno-scream broke Threepio off.

Smoke puffed from the terminal Artoo was connected to, sending the droid spinning away across the control room. He clattered into a chair and monitor. Chewie roared over his shoulder at the commotion.

Segments of the rock hewn door rolled away, revealing a dark abyss that yawned with a croaking air.

\---

Above, Artoo’s scream echoed through the facility and caught Cardo’s attention.

‘That way.’

He dropped a lifeless stormtrooper, whom he held aloft by the throat. The trooper’s chest plate had a cannon-sized hole in the centre.

Ushar popped up ahead of him, attaching a stolen stormtrooper rifle to his belt.

\---

‘Oh Artoo! Artoo!’ Threepio was by his side. ‘Tell me you’re okay?’

Artoo hummed a sigh.

‘Don’t be so dramatic.’ Threepio turned to the others. ‘He’s fine.’

Poe wasn’t so sure. ‘Hm, I don’t know… You two should hang back here. We don’t know what else we’ll find in there and neither of you are particularly nimble right now.’

‘With all due respect, sir, what use will we be against what’s out here?’

But Poe, Finn, and Chewie were already headed inside Palpatine’s secret wing of the facility. ‘Just power down, they’ll walk right by you.’

‘Or hide in the closet,’ Finn added.

Chewie growled something equally unhelpful, then they were gone. The door slid shut behind them. Threepio looked over the nearby closet. ‘Wouldn’t be the first time, I suppose.’

Artoo had already powered down.

\---

The lights didn’t work inside Palpatine’s private bunker.

Laboratories separated by viewing windows stretched onwards indefinitely like a hall of mirrors, thirty years of musk reaching out and stinging the trio’s nostrils. But there was another twang, organic yet mystical—evidence of unholy experiments. Guns drawn, Poe led the way past desks covered in spilled paperwork, weaponry and armour, large test tubes…

‘What were they doing here?’ said Poe.

Finn got close to a tube and held his torch up to it. Floating in the goop was a tiny, pale figure, with what looked like fins or horns atop its head.

‘Clones.’

‘Of what? Don’t tell me Palpatine.’

‘Doesn’t look like it.’ Finn looked closer, cautiously, expecting movement. He inspected a tiny sign. ‘Says the species is Exgolian.’

‘Never heard of them.’

‘You wouldn’t, these coordinates put them somewhere in the Unknown Regions.’

‘That explains the observatories. And all this new weaponry; it’s different.’ Poe picked up a stormtrooper helmet. It was difficult to see in the low light, but the bright red was unmistakable, as were the grated accent textures.

Finn scoffed. ‘It’s funny, the First Order drill Sergeants constantly threatened to replace us with clones.’

‘Wait.’ Poe raised his fist. Stopped their march through the laboratories.

‘What?’

‘Where’s Chewie?’

Their furry friend was nowhere in sight.

\---

Back in the control room, Artoo woke up, sound muted. His main view scope twisted subtly, recording. In the glass’ reflection, Ushar and Cardo stood at the entrance to Palpatine’s laboratory. A stormtrooper knelt before them. He was pleading with them, arms stroking the air in terror, words stuck in his throat as he choked.

Cardo relinquished his grip just enough so he could speak.

‘Why isn’t this door open?’

‘The encryption…’ the trooper gargled. ‘It predates… the Empire. Our devices do nothing.’

‘Figures,’ Ushar yawned, scratching his helmet with his club.

The trooper let out a strange, pained sound. ‘Please. I’m sorry. We… We didn’t… ’

The Cardo released him. Stepped over his prostrated body as he jerked and gasped for air. They inspected the door.

‘What d’you think?’ Ushar asked.

Cardo touched the rock. ‘Sith tech.’

‘You can get in there though?’

Cardo stepped forwards.

‘Where are the others?’ came the stormtrooper, getting to his feet. ‘I think FV-48 might have a battering tool that can get through that thing.’

The Knights looked at each other. Ushar chuckled and moved off. 

Cardo laid his other giant hand comfortingly on the trooper’s shoulder. ‘Nothing for your kind to worry about.’

‘Wait, what?’ The trooper’s helmet bobbled about, panicked. Artoo zoomed in.

Cardo’s hand suddenly clasped hard around the trooper’s armour plating. The trooper screamed, only to be swiftly silenced by Ushar’s club, which battered him across the control room. The trooper’s broken corpse landed at Artoo’s feet.

As if they’d just brushed aside an ant, the Knights readdressed the door. At a simple raising of the hand and a deep call through the force, Cardo requested passage.

It was granted.

Artoo was left alone with the dead stormtrooper. He zoomed in on the helmet, which was cracked into segments. One was pulled back, taking the visor with it. A sad eye stared vacantly out of the hole.

## 

##  **XX**

Finn jumped at the sound of a sliding door far off, back the way they came; a sudden tunnel of light opened then closed into a pin prick.

‘I don’t like this,’ he said.

‘Chewie’ll be alright. Just let him do his thing; he’s probably got Wookie sense or something. Signal’s coming from in here.’

Poe and Finn reached a final, semi-circular control room. It’s back wall was laden with consoles and windows reminiscent of a Star Destroyer bridge. Rather than stars, they looked out on nothing but the same grey stone that comprised the sun designed doorway.

Everything was switched off, aside from one small console where a tiny satellite dish rotated atop it.

‘Huh… I was expecting something creepier,’ said Finn.

Poe gulped. ‘See, nothing to worry about.’

A click and buzz. The pair trained their weapons on the tiny dish. It was nothing. They relaxed, blaming each other for the knee jerk reaction.

At their approach, the dish rose into the air, revealing a compartment hidden in the console. A cube sat inside, small enough to fit in the palm of Poe’s hand. He took it.

Each side was made of glass, it’s edges gold. Red energy swirled inside like stars in a galaxy. A strange voice emanated from the cluster of lights, barely audible.

Poe held it close to his ear and scrunched his face. ‘Let’s hope Threepio can translate this.’

Another sudden click and buzz made them spin around. Too late. They were met with the barrel of a cannon mounted to a tenebrous arm, its circular mouth alight. In its belly, an orange engine purred, ready to fire. With that one weapon Finn and Poe were entirely outmatched. They raised their hands.

‘I’ve waited a long time for this,’ said Ushar, stepping out from behind Cardo.

‘Can’t say I feel the same,’ said Poe, mind scrambling for a way out of the situation. It felt hopeless—or was it?

He saw a figure—roughly the size and shape of a Wookiee—crouching his way through the laboratories, encroaching on their position.

‘ _The Great Traitor, FN-2187!’_ Ushar blurted out. He couldn’t help himself. ‘And _The Best Pilot in the New Republic_ _!_ Tell me, what trophies could I pull from your corpses?’

Finn noticed a stormtrooper rifle attached to his waste. It was wet, dripping in blood.

Poe held the cubed wayfinder high. ‘You take another step and I’ll smash it.’

‘No, you won’t,’ Cardo growled. His cannon made a high pitched charging noise. Ushar chuckled. Was this a game to them?

‘You sure your boss’ll want this thing destroyed?’ said Finn.

Cardo lowered the cannon.

A stalemate? No, he was just giving them a split second’s reprieve, only to dash their hopes when he raised his arm again. The cannon had finished charging.

‘Like I care.’

Poe and Finn closed their eyes.

A green flash!

Cardo’s body flew forwards. Poe and Finn rolled sideways as the boulder-sized Knight flew overhead, rag-dolling into the console.

‘Idiot!’ Ushar roared. He turned.

Chewie shot at him too. But Ushar was not so taken by surprise. Before the bolt hit, he swung his club with both arms and sent it hurtling back. Chewie dropped behind cover, the blast striking and bending a support girder.

Finn and Poe picked themselves off the ground, charged. They tackled Ushar simultaneously. His back and rib cage cracked off the edge of a holotable. A map of an unknown star system exploded into life.

Damage done, Finn and Poe made for the door.

Ushar was already up, only for his armour to be met with laser fire from Finn. It was enough to stun the Knight, but not keep him down. Out of range of the club, Ushar pulled the stormtrooper rifle off his belt and pulled the trigger, lighting a fire under Finn and Poe who sprinted with Chewie towards the exit.

‘Artoo? Threepio?’ Poe called over the radio.

‘Sir?’

‘We’ve got the Wayfinder but we’ve got company—we need to get back to the surface but a different way.’

‘Already quite a way ahead of you, Sir.’

\---

Back in the maze of sprawling corridors, Artoo and a Threepio were trundling along as quickly as possible, guided by Artoo’s tiny torch.

‘Artoo will send you our coordinates.’

‘Alright thanks.’

\---

Somehow, to a mighty groan, Cardo got up wearing a cloak of smoke that poured out of his back armour plating. He ripped the entire sheet of black metal free and discarded it, reattaching his bandolier over his bare, naturally fortified body.

‘Come on,’ said Ushar, tilting the kink out of his own back. ‘I want my prize.’


	10. 21-23

##  **XXI**

Rey and Kylo stood across the desert straights from one another. Eye to eye.

‘I’m sorry,’ said Kylo.

Rey breathed deeply. ‘Are you?’

‘You didn’t deserve that. All because they don’t understand you, all because they don’t understand the darkness, the natural conflict within us all. I know exactly how that feels.’

Rey straightened. ‘There is no conflict.’

‘But there is. The sooner you accept that, the sooner we can save this galaxy.’

‘There is no conflict.’ Each word strained through Rey’s clenched teeth.

‘Fine. I’ll draw it out if you.’ Kylo reached forwards and his hand landed, physically, on her shoulder. She shoved it away.

The bond broke. After rubbing the sting of her rejection away, Kylo threw on his helmet and strode over to the Tie Silencer, poised in front of the desert straights, purring.

\---

Rey looked back at Rose and BB8, who waited on the bank.

‘Get the speeder. Wait for my signal.’

Neither Rose nor BB8 wanted to leave, but knew that any protest would be futile. Rey strode out onto the straights, arms by her sides. She was doing all she could to mask the mental injuries she had just sustained during her visions.

She walked far enough away that the village behind her was swallowed by a mirage. Out in the open, she closed her eyes. Waited.

 _Breathe… Just breathe…_ Luke Skywalker’s words echoed.

Unclipping the lightsaber from her belt, her new white cloak bustled in the hot wind, which picked up at the rising sound of the approaching Tie Silencer.

Time stretched, Rey’s senses heightened, and as they did, a tiny frown broke her calm demeanour.

_Breathe…_

Back at the village, Rose, sat on the speeder with an audience of villagers who began to mumble as a black monstrosity sped towards that speck of a girl standing unguarded against it. The sharp shadow stayed low, skirting the earth, kicking up a trail of sand—sand which lifted into the air on the back of a rising mechanical scream and the clunk of its chassis skipping over the earth.

\---

Kylo’s gloves squeaked with how tightly they gripped the thrusters and pushed them forwards, way beyond their limits. His father's dice, which he had punched through the force and slung over the gear shaft, jingled away against the dash as the Silencer became unstable. As did his mask. The red adhesive seemed to move, to be alive like lava.

\---

Rey ignited her saber, but left her body fully open. The blue blade framed Kylo’s ship with the opposite line of her leg. It wouldn’t be long now.

\---

Han’s dice jumped about so violently they slipped off the gear shaft. Kylo Ren stared dead ahead, a couple extra cracks branched out across his mask.

\---

Rey turned and crouched into a sprinters starting position, then took off. Her limbs pumped like a train and she drew on the air in such a way that her body filled with all the energy required to match the speed of the Tie Silencer, now wailing right behind her. An impossible task to outrun it, of course. As it’s shadow stalked her, she was dwarfed by its encroaching wings.

No more time. It was upon her. She jumped.

Face scrunching, she threw herself up and backwards with everything she had. Contorting herself upside down, she slashed at the Silencer’s wing.

Following the haggard incision, the Silencer pinged away, it’s cauterised wound spitting molten sheets of liquid metal over the landscape. The carriage itself was sent into a rapid down spin, the other wing breaking off after plunging into the sand. The welds connecting it to the main carriage waned and snapped, flicking the carriage free. The raging ball of fire spun until all details of its structure were lost, a smooth dark ball, skipping across the ground for hundreds of metres.

Inside, Kylo held his arms out, bracing as he hopped around in his seat and clattered against all of the driving instruments. A streak of black stained the straights, as did bellowing grey smoke and flaming debris spread over a huge radius.

Amidst the destruction, Rey landed daintily.

Kylo, however, was lost amidst the wreckage, which littered the landscape. Rey took to her tip-toes.

_Breathe…_

Fear gripped her. Was he gone?

She darted her hand about, searching. Latched onto something. Appearing behind a curtain of smoke which drew itself open, she saw the Silencer carriage, a smoldering, crippled pile. To both her relief and horror, the door to the carriage popped open in a spouting geyser of fire. Once it settled, the door was followed by a trembling hand that gripped the side of the frame. Rey stepped forwards.

Kylo’s mask popped out of the smoke, red veins throbbing. Rey heard him, screaming like an animal, reminiscent of the wounded beast he’d been all the way back on Starkiller when she first scarred his face.

Suddenly, the fear and worry she felt for him transformed into anger. A strange ringing blocked out the outside world, and all she had was the strength to hold herself back from running over there, saber drawn, to finish the job. Maybe she would have done, had Rose and BB8 not pulled up beside her on the speeder.

‘We have to go!’ Rose called. ‘They’ve found it.’

Rey couldn’t break away from Kylo.

‘Rey, they need us!’

She snapped her out of her snarling rage. She was Rey again.

Hopping on the speeder, the three of them left the village. A tear streamed down Rey’s cheek as she hugged Rose from behind. She would blame it on the wind.

\---

Kylo Ren rolled out of the wreckage. His cape had caught on the now claw-like metal frame, warped by the heat, and there it remained. Lying on the ground, he was being suffocated in the mask. He ripped it off and held it before himself fondly as he huffed in the mildly fresher air. He had done his job. The seeds had been sewn.

Above, a stormtrooper dropship, large and white and rhombus in shape, called out to him.

##  **  
****XXII**

An escape hatch, built into Jakku’s surface, flipped away like a tiny coin. Following a short avalanche of sand that poured in from above. Poe and Finn poked their heads above the threshold. They were met with their dune carriage, untouched, flag waving welcomingly.

They nodded at each other. _Huh… Convenient._

Moments later, they were all out of the Empire facility and headed towards it. Chewie jumped onto the hovercraft turret.

Why a ship like that required such sharp defenses was testimony to the hostility of Jakku’s people—perhaps the only thing Finn was glad for. After a brief whir and confused cough from the gun barrel, Chewie unleashed the chain repeater at and over the cliff edge, forcing several stormtroopers encroaching on their position to scurry back into the canyon. After untying the rope anchor, Poe rolled into the ship under the tunnel of laser fire.

‘Okay, big guy, hang it off the stern.’

Chewie pointed the gun off the back end of the hovercraft as Poe punched the ship into life, taking a hold of the tiller and revving the handle. The ancient engine kicked up hot air from a vent which plunged into the sail, causing the whole ship to drift around in a circle. They sped over the tops of canyon.

‘Where we gonna go?’ Finn called, spotting white helmets dotted about the landscape, as well as their white rhombus carriage behind them. ‘They’re everywhere!’

‘Well, we can’t go down,’ Poe said, looking into the canyon as a trio of First Order speeders took off after them through the winding valleys below.

A mighty crack caused them all to duck, as did a slashing ping. One of the sail’s chords detached from the mast.

‘What was that!?’

Chewie fired back at a far off black figure, but the heavy turret did not possess the same accuracy.

\---

‘Why the sail?’ Trudgen asked, slapping Kuruk’s arm as several laser bolts whizzed past his shoulders. Both Knights were unphased.

‘I’m not going back to Vicrul with a destroyed Wayfinder or dead hostages.’

Kuruk let off another shot from his sniper rifle, then reset the bolt action, instantly ready to unleash another silver round.

Cardo and Ushar joined them atop the mound, panting.

Trudgen looked them up and down. ‘What happened to you?’

‘The Wookie,’ Cardo said.

Kuruk let off another shot.

\---

A third sail clip snapped free.

‘Okay, we’re going down,’ Poe said.

‘Down!?’ Finn repeated.

Threepio jumped onto Finn’s shoulder. ‘You’re right to be worried. The chances—ohhhh!’

Poe directed the craft down a steep ridge, bumping its base off rocks and unexpected mounds of sand, until they were firmly committed to the canyon maze.

\---

‘Can you get them from here?’ Ushar asked as the craft disappeared from view.

Kuruk didn’t respond.

‘Kuruk!?’

Kuruk pointed his weapon skyward, to the left, then fired. Following the shot, he held out his palm. Far off, the silver bolt twisted against the blue canvas of the sky and it’s trajectory bent downwards, into the canyon.

\---

The end Chewie’s turret barrel shattered and he dropped back, fur ablaze. He roared. Patted it out. He’d have no fur left by the end of the day.

Finn grabbed him and dragged him back, slapping out the remaining embers. ‘How’re they still hitting us!?’

\---

Ushar patted Kuruk on the back as he reloaded.

‘They’re moving out of range,’ Kuruk said.

‘Someone needs to lead them back this way…’ said Trudgen, staring down Ushar and Cardo.

Cardo grunted his displeasure and ripped off the remaining parts of his armour. As did Ushar. With no further protest, they ran forwards, jumped, and pike dropped into the canyon feet first.

Trudgen turned, searching out the fifth member of their of their group. He found Ap’lek stationed separately on a lower cliff ledge, facing the wrong way. Ap’lek jumped off the cliff, headed in the opposite direction.

\---

The hovercraft’s engine chugged away, echoing in an off kilter way as they glided around canyon corners. They’d been right not to come this way before.

They launched off a small natural ramp. Threepio and Artoo nearly fell from the hovercraft but Chewie pulled them back in, the pair slamming together in the bed of the vehicle.

The stormtroopers were far more elegant as they hopped over the same jump. Hydraulics in their tread systems allowed them to squash upon landing and spring up with greater speed. Each speeder carried two riders, which meant six enemy troopers on their tail, front end blaster fire licking at the hovercraft’s heels.

With the turret out of commission, Finn and Chewie positioned themselves at the stern, blaster and bowcaster hanging over the edge. With so many twists and turns, it was hard to hit anything. All the hovercraft could do was weave and dodge.

Giving up the direct fight, Chewie laid into the canyon walls with heavy fire, doing his best to build up a sand screen.

‘Time to start hitting stuff!’ Poe called.

He pulled into a narrow corridor. It was straight, the only chance they had. The first speeder emerged through a wall of sand. Finn took aim… Bullseye!

The speeder tread snapped and flipped both troopers into a whirlwind of smoke and fire, forcing the other two bikes to skid out around the explosion and ride the walls for a moment. When the new leader landed, Chewie’s bowcaster struck its driver hard, causing both riders to fling away with shattered armour. The speeder carried on by itself until it mashed into another wall.

The third speeder hit the breaks and turned back.

##  **XXIII**

Poe pulled out of the corridor. ‘That’s what I’m talking about, boys!’

‘We must be getting close now right?’ Finn shouted.

Two black shadows flitted across the sun.

‘Should be… Right around this corner.’

But the corner never came. Instead, they were met by a Knight of Ren, hurling himself at the canyon wall right beside the hovercraft from a harsh angle; it was Ushar. His club’s concussive properties caused a landslide the hovercraft was lucky to surf beneath the wave of. Chewie, Finn, Threepio, and Artoo, all fell about each other, shielding their heads from both light and heavy debris. Poe leaned back with the tiller as hard as he could to steer them away from the drastic attack.

Job done, Ushar waited in the giant crater he’d carved out of the canyon side.

‘Crap, he’s trying to turn us around.’

Poe skidded the ship around a pillar of rock, determined to get back on track. He did, and the open heat of the unshielded desert called to them through a gate of blue sky. The end of the canyon was close, open ground one heavy push of the thruster away.

But wait… Cardo!

The bulky Knight of Ren unleashed a plume of fire that cut them off and sent them skidding away, sail ablaze. Their exit was denied. Worse? They were headed straight back towards Ushar, who sprung off the wall and landed on the hovercraft’s topside.

Poe fired his pistol from his hip, but Ushar blocked it with a spin of his club, all the while fighting for balance.

‘Guys!?’ Poe called.

‘Busy here!’

Finn and Chewie fired at Cardo, whose muscular shoulders propelled him through the canyon faster than the hovercraft. He was gaining ground and fast.

‘If you please,’ Ushar said, holding out a hand to Poe. ‘The Wayfinder.’

‘Yeah? And then what?’

Poe shunted the hovercraft sideways, sending its port side grinding against the rock face. Ushar fell into it but pushed off, spilling into the hovercraft onto Threepio’s lap. Artoo withdrew an electric tool from his chassis and zapped Ushar’s mask. The Knight groaned.

‘Hit him again, Artoo!’ Threepio called.

He did. But only to have the zapping arm grabbed and ripped out to a writhing whine. Ushar was not happy.

He stood and clobbered the sail clean off with his club, the mast splitting in two. Behind, Cardo hurdled the whipping triangle and made a bold leap forwards, blocking covering fire from Chewie with his wrist gauntlets. He landed on the hovercraft, but without a sail, the craft fell into a hazzardous spin.

The tiller flung out of Poe’s hands and he dropped below the carriage as the Knights balanced on the lip. They were in a vortex. Finn held back vomit. Background a blur, Ushar held out his hand to Poe again.

Poe refused to give him the Wayfinder, shaking his head, clasping his pocket.

Cardo cocked his flamethrower. Poe had to think fast.

‘Hold onto something!’ he yelled. ‘Dropping anchor!’

At the smash of a lever, a large winch arm rotated out of the stern undercarriage and stabbed the rock and sand below. The hovercraft stopped spinning—the Knights were not so lucky. Ushar and Cardo were flung clear from the hovercraft into the canyon walls, just as the trailway opened into a corridor leading to a deep bowl in the desert.

‘Woo!’ Finn cheered as the hovercraft realigned. ‘Home free!’

Their ride was janky, slow, and kicking up all sorts of fumes, but in the open they’d be safe. One final gate to get through…

Ap’lek stepped in front of them.

It was so sudden that rather than run him through, Poe redirected the hovercraft harshly to avoid him. As they passed, Ap’lek brought down his mighty Mandalorian axe, blunting the hovercraft’s nose. The craft tipped into the sand, expelling its contents like a catapult.

Soft as the sands were, nobody landed comfortably.

The radius of the crater itself must have been one hundred metres leading into the center, and our heroes flew half of that before rolling into its transition with enough momentum to wind up in its centre, which bottomed out into a flat, arena-like base.

Limping, bruised, wires and joints filled with sand, Poe, Finn, Chewbacca, and the droids, hobbled past the halfway point, hoping against hope moving forwards in any direction would help. Sweat drenched them, tinnitus filled their ears, and behind them the shadowy figures of the Knights of Ren lined up at the desert bowl edge.

The third stormtrooper speeder returned and descended the bowl’s bank, headed straight for them. It was over.

‘Get behind us,’ Poe told the droids.

‘Gladly, sir,’ said Threepio.

Poe gave Artoo the wayfinder, who deposited it. Somewhere.

Poe, Finn, and Chewie made a shaky barrier in front of them, throwing away their weapons and showing empty palms. None of them could see straight under the midday sun and their own fatigue. The speeder bike broke harshly and both its stormtroopers hopped off, blasters drawn.

‘Down!’ one commanded.

They had to, lest the looming Knights send hyper accurate covering fire.


	11. 24-25

##  **XXIV**

The troopers crept forwards, slowly, kicking aside the blasters and Chewie’s bowcaster.

‘Hands! Behind your heads!’

Up they went. They were going to need a miracle to get out of this… or Rey. They looked to the sky, hoping for a sign of the Falcon, instead met with a strange, metal beeping egg, which had been flung at them by a powerful arm. It was no bigger than BB8, and landed between the lead troopers legs.

‘Huh?’

The egg exploded.

Swallowed by a cloud of sand and an ear splitting kaboom, everyone in the vicinity, troopers included, crashed away in disarray.

Finn landed hard on his face, mouth filling with sand. Taking a moment to find his breath, spitting out a castle’s worth of mineral, he pushed himself off the ground, head ringing, struggling to see through the pale dust. Twitching left and right, he searched for Poe, for Chewie, for the shape of a friend he could latch onto and crawl towards.

Directly ahead—wherever _ahead_ was—he saw the silhouette of someone writhing. On his elbows, he crawled under the dust cloud. Close enough to reach out and touch them, the sun peeked through the haze and flashed over their armour—it was a Stormtrooper, and she was suffocating.

Helmet distorted by the heat of the detonator, her air supply was cut off. She was going to die, and it would not be a short death. Without thinking, damning his hands to a sharp burn, Finn pulled the helmet off and fell back.

It had been so long since he saw another human under that infamous mask, one who looked like she could be his sister, no less. His heartstrings pulled him towards her again.

She in turn stared at the sky, blotted out by the mushroom cloud they were all consumed by. The light was leaving her eyes, her breathing buried under duress, and it took Finn’s hand clasping around hers to bring it back to normal rhythm, as did catching a glimpse of the infamous traitor, FN-2187.

It re-awoke her resolve.

She popped up onto her elbows, head swirling with confusion, then dropped back down in agony. Laying sideways, dust finally settling, she saw the black mark burned into the ground—where she had stood—as well as the lifeless body of her fellow stormtrooper. Two of the Knights waltzed into the bowl.

Finn grabbed the stormtrooper under her armpits and dragged her back to the others, much to her useless protests.

‘What are you doing!?’ Poe whispered, checking his own neck over.

‘Saving her.’

The trooper stopped kicking her legs and looked at him, face blank.

‘They’re not going to like this back at base,’ said Poe.

‘If we make it there, sir,’ 3PO pointed out.

Ushar and Cardo approached, determined to redeem themselves.

The trooper in Finn’s arms crawled into him, clawing at his arms.

‘I got you,’ Finn said, struggling with her. ‘I got you, it’s okay. Stop!’ He wrestled her behind him.

‘If we could have our trooper back, please,’ said Ushar. The scrunched shape of his mask made his voice echo strangely.

‘So you can murder her too?’

That did not seem to go over well. Finn gulped. The Knights stopped walking.

‘On your faces,’ said Cardo.

Against the fabric of their MO, Poe and Finn did as they were told. Artoo and Threepio loitered further away up the bank, both already keeled over and in no position to realign themselves. Chewie on the other hand, stood tall.

Finn tugged at his ankle fur. ‘What are you doing!?’ he whispered.

Chewie stared back at the two nightmares who had hounded them since they’d picked up the wayfinder. Growled quietly. Poe and Finn had never heard the sound before—a deep, low thunder. A warning sniper shot from Kuruk, stationed at the edge of the bowl, stabbed the ground at his feet.

Chewie didn’t flinch.

Ushar and Cardo laughed.

‘You will submit,’ said Cardo. ‘Like your kind were designed to do.’ Shirtless, he flexed, and looked almost as big as Chewie, his bullet like helmet bobbling atop his neck.

‘Now now, brother,’ came Ushar. ‘This is no ordinary Wookie. The Great Chewbacca…’ Ushar breathed in deeply, quenching himself on the legends.

Chewie barked back.

‘Alas, a tainted narrative. Does it hurt you, Wookie, that you couldn’t save your godson from the Darkside?’

Two stormtrooper dropships rose above the desert canyon ridges, then descended beside the bowl.

‘Do you struggle to sleep, now all your friends are dead?’

Chewie’s growl morphed into a snarl.

‘I wonder, what glory is left for me to earn at your defeat?’

‘None,’ Cardo growled. ‘But he will learn his place from me.’

Chewie removed his bandolier and tossed it away. Held his arms out openly.

‘We shouldn’t play their games.’ Finn whispered.

‘No wait,’ Poe said. ‘We could use a little more time.’ Poe was still searching the skies. ‘C’mon…’

Atop the bowl ridge, a contingent of stormtroopers led by Kylo Ren, joined Kuruk, Trudgen and Ap’lek. The light footed Vicrul floated behind them, arms behind his back.

##  **XXV**

Cardo wound his shoulders out, slapped the sides of his helmet, then pounded on his chest. The sun grew darker. A trick of the force? He threw his gauntlets aside.

Unphased, Chewie shifted his feet wide. They circled each other, edging closer and closer until they were nearly paw to fist. Cardo bowed.

Chewie roared and lifted his arms back, ready to pound Cardo through to the planet's core, only for the cry to be cut short as Cardo thrust his arm forwards. Chewie was picked up off his feet and sent tumbling across the desert floor.

‘Not fair!’ Finn cried.

Cardo shot him a look, one strong enough to pick him up too, and tip him into the wounded stormtrooper's arms.

Chewie was already up. He shrugged off the low blow and charged.

There was something quite horrifying about a stampeding Wookie. At the sound of their feet alone, one would fear for the longevity of their shoulder sockets.

Cardo didn’t seem to care, and ran head on to meet him.

Right before they clashed, Ushar apparated out of thin air and blasted Chewie with another wave of the force, sending him soaring again.

Poe bowed his head. What did they expect?

This would never going to be an honourable fight. They were simply trying to teach Chewie a lesson. Poe wondered what the Supreme Leader made of this, but so far away, Kylo was difficult to read behind his newly forged mask.

Still laid in her lap, Finn turned into the trooper and clamped his eyes shut. She too, without realising, held him. But her eyes were wide, as if she was seeing the world for the first time. She had to witness this atrocity from a different lens.

A thermal detonator landed next to Chewbacca, about ten metres clear, as the Wookie forced himself up to a knee. The resulting, contained blast hoisted him to his feet, causing him to trip into a second strategically thrown detonator, which knocked him back the other way.

That could well have been the end of it.

Ushar and Cardo stepped forwards, cracking their necks and punching each other in an upbeat way, ready to destroy whatever remained of the Wookie. They entered the dust cloud, but they didn’t see Chewie.

Ushar held out a staying hand. Cardo halted.

Camouflaged by the swirling browns and oranges, Chewbacca speared his way through the clouds at the pair of them. Cardo jumped up, twenty feet high, an upside down tornado of dust following him. Ushar was not so lucky. Chewbacca tackled him to a mighty howl of pain. Carried him in a bear hug before dump-tackling him onto the ground. With nowhere to go and paralysed by shock, Chewie had only to raise his two club-like arms and bring them down. But as they extended, an invisible rope slung around his throat and dragged him off the Knight, across the bowl, and into Cardo’s waiting hand, one big enough to grab him by the scruff.

Cardo called on the force to retrieve his flamethrower gauntlet. Before he caught it however, Chewie reached around and grabbed his waist.

Following an uncomfortable _Heugh!_ noise from Cardo, Chewie hurled the Knight shaped projectile at a re-energised Ushar. With little care for his ally, Ushar used Cardo’s ragdolling body as a stepping stone and launched himself past his flailing comrade and into Chewbacca’s arms—bludgeoning bone club first.

Chewie grabbed both ends of the club and, despite stumbling back, kept his feet. Huffing, exhausted, Chewie commenced a tug of war. Ushar knew he couldn’t win, so, with a twist of the club’s handle, the indents in the bone shaft turned red and let out a high pitched scream. Chewie cried and dropped to a knee. Ushar ripped away from him, slicing open Chewie’s palms with the club’s sharper protrusions.

Chewie roared, then was silenced; Cardo reappeared and drop-kicked the Wookie square in the chest.

With Chewie writhing for air, Ushar ended the battle by slamming his bone club into the earth. The concussive waves funnelled through the dirt and kicked up a dry explosion of rock and sand. Sharp pillars of Jakku’s rough minerals punched Chewie into the air, only for him to fall back down in an awkward flump, rendering him a quiet lump of fur.

That’s all he ever was to the two Knights.

‘That’s enough!’ Poe yelled, only for his throat the clamp shut.

‘I say when it’s enough!’ Cardo replied behind a pinching claw directed at him.

The hold went on forever. Poe’s gurgles mixed with the chorus of Chewbacca’s whines. Finn tried to get to them, but the stormtrooper held him back.

‘No!’ she whispered. ‘It’ll be the end of you!’ The sudden, frightened words did their job, but Finn couldn’t just sit there as Poe curled into a wheezing ball.

‘Enough!’

It was Kylo Ren, his bark echoing across the desert.

Cardo took his sweet time but, regardless, did as commanded. Crisis averted. For now.

Finn wriggled out of the troopers arms and limped over to Poe, who shook him off. ‘I’m fine. Fine.’


	12. 26-28

##  **XXVI**

‘Take the Wookie prisoner,’ Kylo told the troopers. They marched down in double file, six of them.

Ushar pointed at the stormtrooper Finn had adopted. ‘You!’ She froze. ‘Pick him up.’

Finn looked at her. He knew that face. She didn’t want to obey any more.

At such an early stage of her own personal redemption however, she stood, clutching her ribs. She skulked past Cardo and Ushar, under the hot gaze of their masks. She withdrew a pair of handcuffs and clasped them around Chewie’s wrists. Her tears dripped into his fur, and although he had no strength to move a full limb, his fingers wrapped around hers and squeezed. He understood.

‘Where are you taking him?’ said Finn.

Ushar threw his club, catching it with the force an inch away from Finn’s face, right before it reversed the geography of his facial features. In other words, _Be quiet._

It took four of the troopers to hoist Chewie to his feet, and as they dragged him up the bank, Cardo called up to Kylo, ‘What about them?’

Kylo held his position at the edge of the bowl, surrounded by Kuruk, Ap’lek, Trudgen, and Vicrul. The air played a tense tune. Poe and Finn held his stare. They pleaded with him silently, seeking a mercy they couldn’t be sure he was capable of. Then, to the audible drop of their hearts, he strode away. His silence answer enough. Finn and Poe bowed their heads. Cardo and Ushar laughed riotously.

‘Just us, lads. Two on two, a fair fight.’

To their confusion, Poe laughed along with them. They weren’t sure how to handle that.

Neither was Finn. ‘Mind explaining what’s so funny?’

Poe raised his eyebrows at him, then looked up. Finn followed the nod. There was a rumbling, a chugging in the sky, a familiar tired wheezing growing louder. Kylo heard it too, but before he could turn around, the Falcon exploded over the lip of rocky maze behind the dropships, Rey in the driver’s seat.

\---

‘There they are!’ she called over the headset.

She tilted the Falcon straight downwards into the bowl. Ushar and Cardo leapt aside, up the bank lest they be crushed by the Falcon’s wing, which punched the ground and skidded across it, sending a torrent of earth waving over them.

‘Hold her steady!’ Rose called from the lower gunner position, which, with the Falcon tilted and held on its side, pointed directly back at the First Order contingency. She opened fire. Ushar and Cardo were forced further back up the bank, using their hands as shields to deflect the bolts. However, the thick streaks of Falcon fire were heavier than that of a blaster, and the residual power was strong enough to send them scampering past the group of Stormtroopers carrying Chewie to one of the dropships.

The injured trooper who had held Finn hurried along with her comrades, but she was distraught, her head on a swivel as she too almost succumbed to the fire.

With Ushar and Cardo out of commission, Ap’lek and Trudgen strode into the bowl, casually reflecting the Falcon’s fire back at Rose’s position with the flat of their axe and sword, respectively. Covering fire rained in from Kuruk, who had drawn back and kept a safe distance in the canyon maze. But neither the parried fire nor Kuruk’s silver sniper shots were enough to penetrate the Falcon’s shields.

The jolting impact did, however, knock Rose around in her seat. ‘Ah! You animals… Rey! Get them in!’

Upside down, Rey was already reaching across the cockpit to manually release the landing gear.

‘Got it!’

Following a coughing thunk, the landing ramp dropped, pistons waning from the unusual angle. It stuck crookedly in the dirt.

\---

‘And she complains about my driving!’ Poe cried as they ran behind the ship. Covered.

Faced with its underside, they paused, spotting BB8 strapped into a custom mount in the gunner position. ‘She’s a bad influence I tell ya!’

They carried on.

‘Oh, BB8, we’re saved!’ Threepio called to a volley of excited squeaks from Artoo.

When the foursome hit the lopsided entrance ramp, Rey tilted the ship, tipping them into the Falcon’s bowels, and they scurried further onboard, tearing towards more familiar positions.

Ap’lek and Trudgen drew closer.

\---

‘Do you not think it prudent to step in?’ Vicrul asked Kylo.

Chewbacca had finally been loaded onto one of the dropships. ‘No. Get the Knight’s back to the Buzzsaw. We can get them in the air. They won’t leave without the Wookie.’

‘As you wish.’

The stormtrooper who had lost her helmet broke away from the group carrying Chewbacca. Got into the other ship. Shell shocked. She couldn’t be with them.

##  **  
****XXVII**

‘Rey!’ Poe yelled, running into the cockpit. ‘They’ve got Chewie!’

‘Chewie…’

‘In the dropship.’

One of them had already left, taking the Knights of Ren with them. The other waited with Kylo, who remained on the ground.

The Falcon was already pointed at the sky, about to pierce the clouds, but after a hard right, it spun around. In the same motion, Poe fell into the co-pilot’s seat next to Rey.

Meanwhile, Rose fell off the ladder leading to the top gunner seat, right into Finn’s arms. A quick kiss and they swapped places. Searching for a more familiar, mechanical job to do, Rose guided a limping Threepio and wonky wheeled Artoo into the dining area, strapping them down.

\---

Alone with his stormtroopers, who made the final preparations for take off, Kylo Ren watched the Falcon arc against the blue sky and head back towards him, leaving behind a streak of white exhaust. He checked over his shoulder. The dropship’s entrance ramp called to him, the rags designed by his recent crash bellowing in the power the ship produced.

He looked away.

‘Sir?’ a trooper called.

‘Go.’

Kylo Ren stepped to the edge of the giant crater.

\---

‘You got this?’ Rey asked Poe.

‘Have I got this? Of course I got this. Where are _you_ going?’

Rey smashed the landing ramp button and headed for the exit.

‘Hold the ship behind me!’

She hopped out of the Falcon, at the opposite side of the crater from Kylo. The Falcon was on her shoulder, First Order dropship on his.

No, she wasn’t going to leave anyone behind. Ever.

Her hand reached out over the slope to a mighty crack and whine of metal refusing to bend, and she pulled the dropship out of its trajectory, all the way over the desert bowl between them.

Kylo let it pass him, unsurprised by her power. Shirt in tatters, mask cracked and dripping its glowing adhesive over his black shirt like spilled blood, he hunched over and reached out, taking a hold of the dropship too. It hovered between the two force users, high above the crater, that great white rhombus rotating in two different directions. It creaked, waned. They both pulled harder. Rey began to groan.

\---

‘She’s got to be careful…’ Poe said, watching the spectacle with his mouth dropped.

Rose joined him. ‘They’re going to rip it in two.’

\---

Rey dropped to a knee. The ship was slipping from her grip. Kylo was too strong. It edged towards him, higher into the sky.

‘No,’ she said. ‘I’m not leaving you. I’m not leaving you…’

Her trauma drove her rage. No matter how she tried to stuff it down, she just couldn’t match Kylo’s stoic approach. He was winning, it was inevitable. But she wouldn’t let it, she couldn’t.

‘Don’t leave me!’

A spark in her eye manifested in her hands, a small white bolt squeezed out by her aggression, her fear, and before she could stop it, it unleashed itself at the dropship in a claw-like stream of gold lightning that grabbed its tail end, pulling it out of the sky and tearing it apart in a ball of fire.

\---

Everyone on the Falcon clamped up, eyes wide with disbelief and worry.

‘No!’ Finn yelled, punching the gun console. He dropped his head in his hands, mirrored by Poe who was at once up, then deflated immediately.

\---

‘Chewie!’ Rey screamed, face contorted.

Before the dropship even hit the dirt she leapt into the crater.

The ship crashed with a metal twang that sent shockwaves up the bank. Waves of sand buffeted her, pulling the sheet of desert back to reveal a giant satellite dish built under the terrain. This was no simple desert bowl.

But she fought through, focused.

\---

At the top of the crater, Kylo backed off. His mask tilted. He removed it, face aghast. _What was that!?_

\---

Rey dove into a hole in the side of the white dropship, now blackened, throwing her hand out to create a clear portal through the fire.

##  **XXVIII**

Rose was the only one still watching. She trembled, Rey was taking too long. And how long would Kylo Ren stand there, waiting? And what was that power?

‘Has she got him?’ Poe asked. He couldn’t look.

‘Can’t see them.’

‘Damn… it.’ He was red with grief.

‘Wait!’

Poe jumped up.

‘Rey’s got him! Go go!’

Dragging the limp Chewbacca out of the wreckage, Rey cried after them; ready to black out, and that was all she remembered before she was back onboard the Falcon as she, Finn, and Rose fussed around Chewie, trying to save his life on the med-bed.

The wookie was squirming, struggling to breath. Rose slashed at matted, red stained fur with a knife. A paw gripped Finn around the throat in panic but Finn batted it away. Jumped atop him.

It took Rey latching an anesthetic mask to his face, as the Falcon tilted and evaded heavy fire from tie fighters on their way out of the atmosphere, to finally keep him down. She stepped back, horrified at what she’d done.

‘Rey!’ Poe called. ‘We’re not out of the woods yet, I need you in here. Finn, BB8, get on the guns!’

The Falcon was suddenly struck. All the medical supplies fell out of the draws.

‘I’m fine here,’ Rose said, swiping the avalanche off Chewie. ‘Go!’

They did.

A whirlwind of Tie fighters swirled around the cockpit as Rey dropped beside Poe, keeping as straight a face as possible. Wobbling around in her seat, rocked by lasers, she wiped tears away and sniffed back her pain as the need to survive overrode her emotions.

‘What have we got?’ she asked.

‘A swarm. Some came from across the desert, others must’ve been stationed above the planet. Pretty sure the Knights of Ren are around here somewhere too… Blast the far left thrusters!’

Rey dragged a handle and twisted it, knocked a series of orange buttons, switching off their lights until only one remained.

The Falcon spun like a flipped coin. It’s edge crashed into several Ties, sending them careening back towards Jakku’s landscape. Laser bolts pung off the Falcon’s shell in response but Rey reset the lights, allowing Poe to kick the Falcon’s speed up a notch as well as flipping the old freighter.

In the top gunner position, Finn flailed about. ‘I think I’m gonna be sick…’ He pulled off his headset and held the mic closer. ‘D’you think you two could calm it down a bit?’

Both Finn and BB8 laid unrelenting fire into the colluding swarm of Ties, which bunched up behind them as the Falcon left the murky orange of Jakku behind them and entered space. Finn and BB8 hit their marks, but there were too many. Out in the open, they were in trouble.

Rose dragged herself off the floor, leant over the examination table.

‘Chewie?’

Chewie’s breathing was slow—too slow.

Back in the cockpit, Poe started the preparations for a hyperspace jump. Rey took control of evasive maneuvers.

‘They’re just going to follow us,’ she said.

Poe ignored her.

‘Did you hear me? Stop. They’re just going to—’

‘I know.’

Poe hurried, flicking switches, setting routes, pulling levers, all to the beleaguerment of Rey. But there was no need to reach out with the force to read Poe’s mind; his idea of escape was clear.

‘How did you guys get back to Kijimi again?’

‘You know how we did it.’

‘You could kill us all.’

‘Like you hadn’t already made sure of that.’

Rey threw herself back, bug eyed. Then her expression became sharp. The tears collected in those wide eyes, but they wouldn’t spill.

‘Poe,’ she said, holding herself together. ‘If you’re going to jump to hyperspace—’

‘Look, I’m sorry I said tha—’

‘If you’re going to jump to hyperspace blind, then let me help you. Let me make it right.’

‘How?’

‘You trusted me to be there for you, and I wasn’t… Let me be there for you now.’

The instruments rattled. Her hand reached towards the stars, vignetted with laser fire and contact blasts. She closed her eyes.

\---

The Buzzsaw cut through the swarm of tie fighters and took point, scorching its way towards the Falcon. At a hurried cranking of a gear, a pair of great black wings extended wide and unclipped two single barreled cannons from of its undercarriage.

‘They’re preparing for hyperspace,’ Kuruk said. ‘Should we follow?’

Kylo was on his shoulder, damp hair streaked across his bruised face. ‘Yes.’

‘Wait,’ came Vicrul, on the other. ‘Their movements… They’re not locked onto any coordinates.’

\---

‘Buzzsaw’s here,’ Finn called over the comms. ‘You’re not doing what I think you’re doing are you? Again?’ A hissing cloud of white smoke blasted out of a pipe and consumed him. ‘Gah!’

‘Not to hurry you, Rey,’ Poe said.

Rey opened her eyes. ‘There.’

‘You’re sure?’

The space was totally black, no stars, no nothing. ‘There.’

The Falcon moved into position. Poe was slow about it, wanting to line up exactly with Rey’s point.

‘Tell me when?’

They waited. Waited. It had to be right.

\---

‘Prepare the cannons,’ said Vicrul.

Kylo glared at him. _Who’s in charge here?_

‘We’ll destroy the Wayfinder, no?’ said Kuruk.

‘It’s already gone.’

The Buzzsaw’s canons hummed into life. Spluttered with smog

\---

‘Punch it!’

Poe did.

The Millennium Falcon was sucked into a tunnel of white streaks and dark blue clouds of distortion. They were gone. Long gone.

\---

Anger. A quiet, seeping anger.

The Buzzsaw shut off its engines, letting a squad of Tie fighters scream ahead into hyperspace too, latched on the Falcon’s trajectory. They disappeared into a hole of warped space.

Kylo and Vicrul left Kuruk.

‘What now, brother?’ said Vicrul.

But Kylo stormed out of the cockpit. Took a seat at the back of Buzzsaw, near its drop ramp. He collapsed his elbows onto his knees. Bowed his head.

Distaste lingered in the mouths of every Knight.


End file.
